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Well, when King Xerxes of Persia
conquered Athens in the Greek-Persian War, all of Greece lay before
him to be conquered. All he had to do was basically
regather his troops and then, through a war of attrition, take
over Greece. But there was a Greek politician
named Themistocles who was very shrewd. And he sent a message
to Xerxes, king of Persia, and he said, hey, I'm willing to
change sides. I'm willing to betray my people, and here's
what I think you should do. The Greeks, the warriors that
were left, have gone off to sea. You should send your army in
ships and ships and try to defeat them now, wipe them out while
they're deflated, and then the war will be over. So Xerxes listened
to this message by Themistocles and sent out his army in droves
in different ships. But what Xerxes didn't know was
that the Greeks who went out to sea had these long skinny
boats that could easily outmaneuver larger ships and were pointed
at the end that they could ram the hull of larger ships and
sink them. And that's exactly what happened.
The Persians sent out a huge portion of their army and the
Greeks outmaneuvered them, they rammed their ships, and they
sank them so much so that one Greek poet said that the sea
could no longer be seen because of the floating debris and bodies
of the Persian army. They were raised inland. They
weren't strong swimmers. But Themistocles wasn't done. He
sent a survivor, a Persian survivor, to Xerxes with a fabricated message. He gave this soldier who survived
the impression that the Greeks' next move was to go and destroy
these pontoon bridges that they had constructed over what is
now the Dardanelles Strait. And they thought they were going
to destroy that so that the Persians would be trapped in Greece. And
so Xerxes again listened and they retreated, took his whole
army, retreated out to get back over the Pontian bridges. So
Persia defeated Athens, had all of Greece in the palm of his
hand, and then had his army annihilated and retreated in shame all because
he listened to a false message from Themistocles, from his enemy. Well, in this passage, Paul warns
the Colossians and their church against being deceived in a similar
way. In Christ, they had already had
the victory. They had salvation. They have
eternal life. But some have crept in among
them, and they've come with deceptive messages and false teachings
And if the Colossians listen to it, they will be needlessly
guilty, and they might even destroy their faith and themselves in
the process. And we also face that same danger,
the same danger that the Colossians faced thousands of years ago.
Not only do we have to resist our sin, which threatens our
faith, but we are also presented with many philosophies. Many
alternative worldviews and other religions that threaten to misalign
us, causing us to abandon the gospel altogether if we listen
to them. So we need this warning. We need
this warning that Paul gives the Colossians. Here's the main
point, this sermon. False teachers can't condemn
us, but if we follow them, we condemn ourselves. False teachers
can't condemn us, but if we follow them, we condemn ourselves. Here's
the two points that we're going to look at. Number one, don't
let others judge you wrongly. And number two, don't be judged
by God rightly. Paul first tells them that they
shouldn't let people judge them and exclude them from the people
of God based on erroneous extra-biblical laws and regulations. But then
he turns around and says, but don't exclude yourself. Don't
cut yourself off from God by following their practices and
teachings. In other words, he's saying they can't condemn you,
but if you follow them, you'll be rightly condemned by God.
You'll cut yourself off from the gospel and from salvation.
So let's look at our first point. Don't let others judge you wrongly.
Paul begins this passage in verse 16 by saying, let no one pass
judgment on you in question of food and drink or with regard
to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. Apparently, there
were people among the Colossians that were teaching that if the
Colossians were true Christians, then they would be observing
certain rules about food and drink, and festivals, and the
Sabbath. And this teaching clearly had
a Jewish flavor to it. You can tell that clearly by
the mention of the Sabbath, but also food, especially food, dietary
laws in the Old Testament. This teaching shows up in other
places like Galatians, even Romans. These people were condemning
the Colossians because they weren't obeying these Old Testament dietary
laws or keeping all the festivals and observing the Sabbath. But
Paul says, don't let them judge you in regard to these things.
And the word Paul uses here for judge is krineto. It means to
harshly criticize or condemn. So Paul is saying, you actually
have freedom in these areas. But if these people deceive you
and you listen to them, then they're going to heap guilt on
you, needless guilt, that you don't have to bear. But what's
interesting about these matters is that they were required for
Old Testament believers to obey. So the question for us is, why
aren't they not required for us to obey? This brings us to
a big topic, which is the application of the Old Testament law to us
as Christians today. How do we know what to and what
to not obey in the Old Testament? Probably us as Christians, we've
maybe glazed over that. We haven't thought about it.
There are certain things in the Old Testament that we don't obey, we don't see as
relevant for us, and probably rightly so in most cases. But
how would you rationalize that? How would you justify that biblically?
Well, theologian John Frame, I think is helpful, and he explains
that all of Scripture is generally normative. It is generally authoritative
for Christians. But not all, the Old Testament
especially, is currently and literally normative or applicable
to Christians. And that's for three reasons.
Either God has changed redemptive history, God has changed that
law or God has fulfilled that law. God has changed redemptive
history. We're in a different redemptive time now. God has
changed that law or God has fulfilled that law. So, One example of
a way where God has changed redemptive history is in Exodus 22 verse
1, where he says, if a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it
or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for one ox and four sheep
for one sheep. Okay, this is generally normative
for us. It's generally authoritative.
We should glean from this that we should make restitution for
wrongs, that stealing is wrong, which is why God made it the
eighth commandment to not steal. But this command isn't so much
currently and literally normative for us. We are no longer living
in an agrarian society, where rules like this and laws like
this would be especially relevant. And what's more, we are no longer
living in what's called a theocracy. We no longer have a king like
the Israelites had, and we are no longer a self-governing body
of people. In the Old Testament, God gave
his people laws, and they were a self-governing people. They
had a king, they had judges, and they went about enacting
justice, carrying out laws. That's no longer the case for
us. The theocracy, the throne of Israel, the earthly national
throne has been removed, and God in Romans 13 has clearly
established civil authorities, government leaders to enact justice,
and hopefully they do that rightly. And so these case laws, like
I just read in Exodus 22, were outworkings of the Ten Commandments
so that leaders of Israel would know how to enact justice. And
these are still generally normative for us, right? They reveal God's
justice, they reveal His character, but they're no longer currently
and literally normative because we are no longer carrying out
laws like this. We're no longer in a theocracy.
We're living in a different time in redemptive history. So God
has changed redemptive history, which is why some laws in the
Old Testament don't apply to us. But then there's some laws
that are changed by God. And one example of that is actually
in this passage. He talks about food and drink.
We know in the Old Testament certain foods were prohibited.
There were certain dietary laws. And we know in Acts 10, God appeared
to Peter and gave him a vision And he went and spoke to the
Roman centurion Cornelius, and God declared all foods clean.
He said, do not call unclean what I have called clean. And
so that's one example of how God has changed the law. We have
done away with the dietary laws and restrictions. But these teachers
are actually going beyond just food. They're going beyond the
Old Testament law. They're talking about drinks.
The Old Testament law talked about food, but it didn't talk
about beverages. What clearly I think is happening here, and
there's actually record of this, is that certain Jews were not
only upholding the Old Testament dietary laws, they were actually
refraining from drinks, especially wine, because it was associated
with pagan rituals. And so they were going to other
Christians saying, hey, you not only need to fulfill these dietary
commands, you better refrain from wine and other drinks because
you'll associate with pagan rituals if you do. And you're not really
a Christian if you're not doing this. Well, in Romans 14, in
1 Corinthians, Paul lays out clearly that certain people were
refraining from foods for the same reason, because they were
associated with certain pagan rituals, meat offered to idols. And Paul tells them in Romans
14 that they actually have freedom to eat and drink. He says the
kingdom is not of eating and drinking. And so he says these
things shouldn't hamper us as Christians. And yet Paul did
say they can and should refrain from perhaps drinking wine or
eating meat that was offered to idols for the sake of a fellow
Christian whose conscience was convicted in that role. So we
should be gracious, we should be flexible and give up our rights
as Christians, but we shouldn't be hampered. We shouldn't have
needless guilt heaped on us like these teachers were trying to
do the Colossians. So sometimes laws don't apply to us because
God has changed redemptive history, Some laws don't apply to us because
God has changed them in the New Testament, like food and dietary
laws, but then sometimes there are laws that have actually been
fulfilled in Christ. Perhaps the most clear example
of this would be the sacrificial laws in the Old Testament. In
Hebrews 10, verses 11 and 12, we read this, and every priest
stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices
which can never take away sins, but When Christ had offered for
all time, all time, a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down
at the right hand of God. He abolished the Old Testament
sacrificial system. And Hebrews later says, what
is obsolete is now passing away, it's fading away. Christ fulfilled
it. But Christ also fulfilled commands
about festivals and new moons and the Sabbath. Because we read
here in verse 17 that Paul says, These things are a shadow of
the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. They're a
shadow, but the substance belongs to Christ. God's people were
commanded to rest from work and to focus on God during certain
festivals or feast days like Passover or the Feast of Booths
or other feasts and festivals. And yet the reason God gave them
those festivals was to remind them that he had, in a sense,
atoned for them, redeemed them by the blood of a lamb, especially
in the festival of Passover. so they should do that again
and again to remind them God has taken us out of the land
of slavery. He's redeemed us by the blood of the lamb. Well
now God has redeemed them by the blood of Christ and he's
actually given us a new festival, a new feast that he calls the
Lord's Supper, which Jesus said do this in remembrance of me."
And so Christ fulfills the festivals, the feasts of the Old Testament.
But Christ also fulfills new moons and the Sabbath. Now, the
new moon just refers to a time when sacrifices were to be made
by priests, because in 1 Chronicles 23, 31, among other places in
the Old Testament, it says that the priests were commanded to
stand praising and thanking the Lord whenever sacrifices were
brought on Sabbaths, new moons, and feast days. So the new moon
was basically another time like the Sabbath for the Old Testament
people of God, where God's people were commanded to rest and to
make sacrifices. But Christ, Paul says in this
passage, fulfilled the new moon's day of rest and the Sabbath.
Now, this is somewhat controversial because there are very godly
brothers and sisters in Christ that still hold to a Sabbatarian
view, which is that we need, as Christians, to observe the
Sabbath, that we need to rest entirely, just like the Old Testament
people of God. It is the fourth commandment,
after all, and they jokingly refer to people who don't believe
that as believing in all nine of the commandments, right? And
so we have to think carefully about this. But I think that
verses like this and others make a strong case for the fact that
Christ actually fulfilled the Sabbath rest. As Paul says, these
are a shadow of the things to come, but Christ is the substance. Additionally, in Galatians 4,
verses 10 and 11, Paul says, you observe days and months and
seasons and years. And then he says, I am afraid
I have labored over you in vain. In other words, he's saying they
are continuing to obey Old Testament laws that were clearly fulfilled
in Christ, and he's worried, have I labored in vain? Do they
not realize that this was actually fulfilled in Jesus? Are they
not looking to Jesus for their salvation as they should? But
Hebrews 4 is, I think, perhaps the clearest on this topic. Hebrews
4 explains that we should strive to enter God's rest, and if we
have believed in Jesus, then we have entered that rest. The
author of Hebrews is basically explaining that the Israelites
missed out on God's rest because they neglected the Sabbath. Basically,
they didn't obey the fourth commandment as they were commanded to, and
because of that, they missed out on God's rest. So now what?
Can they no longer enter God's rest? Is there no opportunity
for them to enter God's rest? Well, the author of Hebrews is
clear. He says that if they've believed, then they have entered
his rest. Hebrews 4 verse 3 says, we who
have believed in Christ enter that rest. Christ is our rest. And that is such a comfort. Jesus
said in Matthew 11, I am gentle and lowly of heart. Come to me
and you will find rest for your souls. Rest for your souls in
Christ. He's our rest. Elie Wiesel was
a Holocaust survivor who wrote about his experience in the book
Night. And he was 15 when he arrived
at the concentration camp Auschwitz. And after a year there, the Allies
liberated the camp, which caused the SS troops to force every
prisoner in the camp into what he called a death march. They
were forced to run miles and miles in the snow without a break. This is what Elie Wiesel wrote
about this death march. A few more yards, I thought,
a few more yards, and that will be the end. I shall fall, a spurt
of red flame, a gunshot. Death wrapped itself around me
till I was stifled. It stuck to me. I felt that I
could touch it. The idea of death began to fascinate
me, not to feel the horrible pains in my foot, not to feel
anything, neither weariness nor cold, I was simply walking in
my sleep. I managed to close my eyes and
to run like that while asleep. Now and then someone would push
me violently from behind and I would wake up. The others would
shout, run faster. An endless road, letting oneself
be pushed by the mob. When the SS soldiers became tired,
they were changed, but no one changed us. Our limbs numb with
cold despite the running. Our throats parched, famished,
breathless. On we went. The commander announced
that we had already covered 42 miles since we left. It was a
long time since we had passed beyond the limits of fatigue. Finally, the order was given
to rest. And Eli and his father found a shed to sit down and
collapsed in utter exhaustion. And Ellie couldn't rest. He was
nervous. He was frantic in his mind about what was happening.
But Ellie's father said to him, don't be afraid, son. Sleep. You can sleep now. I'll watch
over you myself. And Ellie laid down in his father's
arms and he rested. If you aren't a Christian, Aren't
you tired of running? Aren't you tired of feeling you
always have to measure up or feeling guilt and shame for past
sins? Aren't you stressed and run down
from life? Don't you long for rest, true
rest? Come to Jesus. Come to Christ. He is your rest. He is gentle
and lowly in heart. And in Him, and in Him alone,
will you find rest. Come lay down and experience
deep, refreshing, restorative spiritual sleep. God says He
gives sleep to His beloved. So trust in Christ, in His finished
work on the cross for your sins, in His resurrection from the
dead. Trust in Christ and feel Him. Take that heavy burden off
of your back. Let Him wash and soothe the sores
on your feet from years and years of running and trying and striving
to be perfect, which you cannot be. Rest in Christ. And for my brothers and sisters
in Christ, stop trying to earn your salvation.
Stop trying to pay God back. You can't. Having begun by the
Spirit and by grace, don't resort back to the death march of your
works. It's futile. Maybe even in prayer,
you feel you have to pray long enough or good enough, say the
right words. Maybe if I'm emotional enough,
maybe if I mourn for my sin, then God will love me more. Or
maybe he'll love me at all. Rest in Christ. Come to Jesus. As one hymn writer put it, not
what my hands have done can save my guilty soul. Not what my toiling
flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do
can give me peace with God. Not all my prayers and sighs
and tears can bear my awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can
ease this weight of sin. Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God,
can give me peace within. Thy love to me, O God, not my
love, O Lord, to thee, can rid me of this dark unrest and set
my spirit free. Food and drink and festivals
and the Sabbath are a shadow. But Christ is the substance.
Come to Him, rest in Him. He is our Sabbath rest. But this
doesn't mean we neglect Sundays, right? Just because Christ is
our Sabbath rest, we're still commanded in Hebrews 10, 24,
and 25 to let us not give up meeting together as some are
in the habit of doing, right? So we need to prioritize the
body and being here in person for worship. But if you got some
studying to do on a Sunday night or you want to play a game with
some friends in between church and home fellowship, let no one judge
you for that. That's what Paul is saying here,
I think. Paul has just been talking about how Christ triumphed over
sin and Satan and death for us. And now he says, don't let other
people judge you about trivial matters. God doesn't condemn
you. Satan can't touch you. Why would
you let other people judge you? Why would you care about that?
Romans 8 34, who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died.
More than that, who was raised? Who indeed is at the right hand
of the Father who is interceding for us? Why on earth do we spend
our time eating the bread of anxious toil over something so
foolish as what other people think of us or how they will
judge us when God himself has freely pardoned us? The only
judgment, the only condemnation from others that we should fear
is the kind of judgment and criticism that actually points out that
we are in disobedience to God. Not the kind of judgment that
is trivial. It's like, okay, well, that's your conscience
and that isn't really grounded in Scripture. But if someone
points out to us, no, actually, brother or sister, you actually,
I think, are sinning, we should greatly solicit that kind of
feedback. You see this throughout Scripture.
Psalm 141.5, David says, let a righteous man strike me. It
is a kindness. Let him rebuke me. It is oil
for my head. Let my head not refuse it. Or
Proverbs 27 6, faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are
the kisses of an enemy. So we can receive correction
and feedback from people openly because we know ultimately that
God doesn't condemn us. It's a great book by Ed Welch
called When People Are Big and God is Small. Oftentimes we fear
feedback or criticism from others precisely because people are
so big, bigger than God. When people are small, compared
to God in our life, then we won't fear that kind of criticism.
We'll say, hey, I can be better at my job. I can be a better
dad or husband. Yeah, share that with me. Oh,
I'm actually not walking in accordance with Scripture. Please share
that with me. We actually won't fear criticism because we'll
know that we're loved and accepted by grace in Christ. So we can
then receive criticism and give it graciously. Now give it graciously.
This is not an excuse to just say, hey, David said, let a righteous
man strike you. So get ready. It's coming. No,
we should be gracious. I've written on this in lightofscripture.com. It's a blog post called Confronting
Others About Their Sin. Just walks through biblically
how we should think about approaching someone if we want to confront
them about their sin or something that's wrong with them. Just
trying to walk through different steps that we should filter through
before we have a conversation like that. So we should do it
graciously, wisely, biblically, but we should solicit this kind
of feedback. But not all rebukes are equally
valuable, and that is what Paul explains here. Let no one judge
you or condemn you on things that we have freedom on. And
if we allow them to do that, then we'll become overly rigid
and hinder our faith and our rest in Christ. And this idea
of Christian liberty, when it comes to our conscience, is a
really important topic, especially as we consider things like schooling,
and alcohol, or politics, or race, or other non-essential
doctrines like the Sabbath. There's a great book called Conscience
by Andy Nacelli and Jim Crowley, maybe, I think is the other co-author.
Phenomenal resource on that. Highly recommend it. So let no
one judge you. That's the first pitfall we must
avoid as Christians. But there's another more dangerous
pitfall that we have to avoid in our journey with Christ. And
that's our second point. Don't be judged by God rightly. Verse 18, Paul says, let no one
disqualify you. So first he said, let no one
judge you or condemn you. And now he takes it up a notch.
He says, let no one disqualify you. So the first word for judge
that we learned meant to criticize harshly or condemn. This word
for it, disqualify, actually means to rob someone of a prize.
It's one thing to get harshly criticized. It's a completely
different thing to get robbed. Especially when you consider
what they were being robbed of. It was the gospel. It was their
very salvation. Look at what Jesus says, or what
Paul says. He says this teaching would cause
them to stop holding fast to Christ. Christ is the head of
the body, the church. And so what is this teaching
that Paul is warning them about? Well, these people were insisting
on asceticism. That word, this word literally
means humility or self-denial, which is why some translations,
maybe some of your translations actually use humility instead
of asceticism. But it's a false kind of humility.
And given the context in the previous verse, he's likely referring
to extreme self-denial like asceticism. This would be constant fasting,
elaborate fasting, refraining from different activities, all
to climb this spiritual ladder to reach higher echelons of the
knowledge of God. They're insisting even on the
worship of angels, Paul says. This is just blatant idolatry.
Throughout the book of Colossians, Paul is actually continually
warning against trusting in angels and in spirits. If Galatians
struggled with Christ plus my works equals salvation, then
the Colossians would definitely struggle with Christ plus angels
equals salvation. They had a high, high view of
angels and what they needed to receive from them. Some people
were actually teaching that they needed to appeal to angels for
spiritual protection or to ward off evil. But we can see why
this directly opposes the gospel. We have direct access to God
through faith in Christ. We don't need angels. We have
one mediator, and we only need that mediator. Jesus said in
John 14, 14, if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. In
my name. That's why when we end prayers,
we end them with in Jesus's name. Amen. Or in Christ's name. Amen. It's because we are being reminded,
and we're praying the way God taught us to, and we're being
reminded that it's only because of Christ that we have direct
access to God the Father. Today we hear, I think, a lot
about the spiritual realm, right? It's movies about paranormal
activity or shows, a lot of talk about guardian angels. Maybe
if you've gone through a hard time, you've gotten a text from
a friend or family member, guardian angels watching over you, angel
emoji. Look, angels are real, and they
do watch over us from time to time. But they do so by command
of God. Angels only do God's bidding.
They don't act independently of God. And so it's not angels
that we should be comforted by. It's the one who commands angels
to watch over us. We can go directly to Him. But perhaps the most glaring
version or maybe parallel of worshiping angels today, I think
would be the Catholic teaching of praying to the saints and
Mary. If we shouldn't worship and invoke the help of angels,
angelic beings, to ward off evil, how much less should we invoke
the help of former sinners who have been redeemed just like
us? But not only are these people
insisting on asceticism and angel worship, but they're going on
and on in detail about visions, Paul says. These false teachers
clearly advocated for a brand of mysticism. They thought that
if you deprive yourself physically through asceticism and fasting
and self-denial, and you appeal to angels, then you'll have these
special spiritual visions. you'll see crazy things that
is going to take you to the next level as a believer, to the next
level as a Christian. They taught a kind of spiritual
elitism. If you want to be in the inner circle, that's great
if you're a Christian, like you're a professional Christian, great.
But if you like really want to be a Christian, then you need
to get down with this extra stuff. These people like this are all
over YouTube, right? If you want to go to the next
place with your health, if you want to go to the next place with your
fitness or whatever it is, you can find millions of these influencers
where it's like, just buy this supplement or whatever or be
a part of my program. It'll take you to the next level.
That's what these people were basically doing, but to a blasphemous
degree spiritually. They're saying, do this, and
then you'll have these special visions. And the interesting
thing is, as a result of these visions, they got puffed up in
verse 18. They're puffed up without reason
by their sensuous mind. It's so ironic, but not surprising,
that their insistence on self-denial or humility results in them being
puffed up in pride. When we insist that our spiritual
knowledge or our theology, or our spiritual practices, or angelic
favor is the source of our spiritual health or success, the result
can only be pride. We can only look down on other
people and think, well, they're not quite as good as me. We will pride ourselves in what
we've done and what we've seen. And that's why it's so essential
to keep God's grace front and center in our lives. Paul saw
spiritual visions. He actually says so in 2 Corinthians
12. I was called up to the third heaven. I saw things that man
was not permitted to tell. But he also, more importantly,
saw a clear vision of God's mercy. Because just after that, in 2
Corinthians 12, he says, and because of these surpassingly
great revelations, I was given a thorn to torment me. And Paul
pleads with God three times, take this thorn away, take this
thorn away, take this thorn away. But what does God say to him?
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect
in your weakness. And I think there's two things
that we should learn from that. One, thank God for the thorns
in your life. He's using them to produce character
in you. He's using them to remind you
of his grace, of your need for grace. But he's also using them
to keep you humble. to keep you from getting puffed
up from perhaps the great blessings you've received in Jesus. Or
maybe because of the ways that he's used you for his kingdom. But two, don't rejoice that you've
seen heavenly visions. Don't rejoice that you've had
this spiritual mountaintop experience or that God has used you in some
marvelous way. Rejoice that your name is written in the book of
life. by his grace and by his mercy. Martin Lloyd-Jones was
arguably the greatest preacher of the 20th century. He was at
Westminster Chapel in London. But toward the end of his life,
when he could no longer preach anymore because of his health, he had
a friend come visit him. And this well-meaning friend
said to him, man, you know, Pastor Lloyd-Jones, it must be so hard
for you now that you can't preach anymore. And Lloyd-Jones looked
at him without hesitation and said, not at all. And then he
said, I never lived for preaching. It was something I did, but not
who I was. Don't let anything, not ministry,
not work, not the amount of money you make or the amount of money
that you can give to missions or the church, don't let any
of it lead you to think that that's what it's all about. These
people had great spiritual visions. Very impressive outwardly, spiritually. But look at this devastating
statement in verse 19 that Paul says about them. They're puffed
up about their visions and not holding fast to the head. The head is Christ. In chapter
1, Paul makes that clear. Christ is the head of the body,
the church. They're so eager to practice
these spiritual disciplines and receive visions that they've
let go of Christ. These false teachers were so
enamored with these spiritual practices and the like, but in
the process they let go of Jesus. They killed the faith that all
these practices were meant to point to. It's like when Jesus
says to the Pharisees in John, you diligently study the scriptures
because you think by them you have eternal life. It's them
that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have
life. So how do we avoid that? How
do we avoid going about spiritual busyness and yet letting go of
Jesus? Well, by holding fast to Christ. If we hold fast to Christ, we
will grow properly. Because look at what Paul says
in verse 19, connected to the joints and ligaments, built up
with a growth that comes from God. We're all growing. The question is, what are we
growing to be? And how? Only if we are holding fast to
Christ will we grow healthy. nourished and knit together through
our joints and ligaments with a growth that is from God. And
that's why I think in Hebrews 12, one through three, we read,
therefore, since we are surrounded by so a greater cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us
looking to Jesus. the author and perfecter of our
faith. As we run in our spiritual journey,
as we perform these spiritual disciplines of grace, the means
of grace, we look to Jesus. Maybe when you started driving,
you remember a driving instructor or maybe a parent saying, you
know, when you're in your lane, look 30 to 40 yards ahead in
the middle of the lane. That's what's going to keep you
in the middle. Not looking at the big tractor trailer next
to you. You might be scared of that, but if you're looking at
that the whole time, you're going to drift into it or you're going to drift away
from it into trouble in the next lane. By looking directly ahead, you'll
actually avoid the tractor trailer. You'll avoid the other trouble
around you. You'll stay in your lane. And that is our experience
spiritually. We need to be aware of false
teachings. We need to be aware of things
that will hinder our faith. But more than anything, we should
fix our eyes on Jesus. We can't just glance at him.
We can't keep him in our peripheral vision. We have to keep him dead
center in our eyesight because it's so vital. If we don't, then
we will abandon Christ. We won't hold fast to him like
these false teachers did not. But finally, Paul shows them
why they are not bound to obey these regulations and false teachings.
He says in verse 20 that they've died with Christ to the elemental
spirits of this world. Back in chapter two, verse eight,
Paul wrote, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy
and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to
the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
Paul told them not to give in to this false teaching that ultimately
had its origin in demonic powers, in the elemental spirits of this
world. He explains that through their
faith in Christ they've died with Christ to these false teachings
that they were once in bondage to. So why do they keep doing
it? Paul says something similar to
the Galatians when he says in chapter 5 verse 1, for freedom
Christ has set you free. Stand firm then and do not submit
again to a yoke of slavery. You've died to those false self-made
workspace religious practices. You've been set free in Christ.
Why would you go back to that? That's what Paul is telling the
Colossians. And then Paul basically mocks their philosophy. He says,
do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. And this alliteration
was basically a way of mocking this extreme denial that only
had to do with the mere physical things that are passing away.
As Paul says in verse 22, but we live eternally with Christ. And so we should set our minds
on the things that are imperishable, not on the physical things that
are passing away, Our view of godliness and growing in godliness
should not just deal with the physical, the things here on
earth. We have to become a new creation. We actually have to
be reminded that we've died in Christ and now we live through
faith in him. Galatians 2.20 says that exactly.
But Paul admits in verse 23 that these practices have an appearance
of wisdom and of godliness, yet they have no power in restraining
the indulgence of the flesh. But they had an appearance of
wisdom and godliness. How sad when Christians would
rather appear wise and religious than actually put sin to death
out of true love for God. I remember hearing a story D.A. Carson told about a very prominent
man in his church. This man was well respected by
others. He was a successful doctor. and he participated in medical
missions, he gave generously, but seemingly out of nowhere,
he walked away from the faith and actually left his wife. And
D.A. Carson was shocked by this and
he went to talk to his pastor about it, but the pastor was
not surprised. D.A. Carson said, well, what
do you mean you're not surprised? This man was so well respected.
He seemed to be such a godly man. And the pastor said, well,
this man had never gone through trials before. He never had to
suffer for the gospel. See, this man thought, oh, Christianity,
how nice. Look at how I'm just growing
in wisdom. Look at how well respected I
am by my peers, these other people in this community. Look at how
warm it makes me feel inside that these other people regard
me as such a moral and good and godly person. But the minute
he had to choose between his sinful desires and Christ, his
true self was revealed. Never let the desire for respect
and religious appearance take hold in your heart. Didn't Jesus
have no majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that
we should desire him? Why would we have godly, upright
appearance? Why should we be celebrated and
have a parade when Jesus was born into an obscure no-name
town named Nazareth that apparently no good thing could come from?
Wasn't Jesus mocked in life and in death? Didn't Paul refer to
himself and all Christians as the refuse of the world? Don't
love status and appearance in the world or in the church. Don't
love religiosity. Don't love being thought highly
of by others. Don't love knowing all the answers
in Bible study. Love Christ. Hold fast to Christ. We are most happy in this life
when we are most satisfied in Christ. But these false teachings are
also worthless for growing in godliness. So they have an appearance
of wisdom, but he says they have no value in stopping the indulgence
of the flesh. Paul is not interested with pruning
the tree of sinfulness. He wants to take an act to the
root of the tree by saying, look, you've died to Christ. We have
to throw out man-made religion. We have to throw out anything
that distracts us from Christ. And what's more, we can't just
be content with restraining the physical. We have to actually
die to this old creation. And that's exactly what Paul
says in Galatians 2.20. I have been crucified with Christ. It
is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life
I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. And in the next passage in Colossians
3, Paul is actually going to tease this out. Our death with
Christ and our resurrection for him, the importance of that for
our sanctification. Because if then you have been raised with
Christ, seek the things that are above. He's saying this method
of just restraining the flesh has no real value. You have to
realize that you're a new creation altogether. You have been raised
with Jesus. How can you think about these
things? How can you desire them? How can you think you can justify
yourself anymore? We've died in Christ. And so Paul is not interested
in pruning this tree. He says, you've died. You're
a new creation. And Paul says, all of these things
are a sham. These teachers appear righteous
and holy and pious, but they aren't. They're falsely humble,
and even worse, their teaching will actually lead us to abandon
Christ altogether, rather than hold fast to Him. And it will
not prevent the indulgence of the flesh. It won't lead to true
godliness. So we can imagine these teachers, these false teachers,
coming to Paul and saying, okay, Paul, what do you suggest? What do you say? What do you
think will truly cause us to growing godliness. What do you
think will cause us to stand before God's judgment throne
with confidence that we'll be cleared, that we'll be forgiven?
Well, I think Paul would say to them, well, I've been telling
you all along in this book and in this passage. First, he said
Christ is the substance. Then he said Christ is the one
we hold fast to. And lastly, he said Christ is
the one we've died with. Only by dying with Christ in
faith and holding fast to him in faith, can we avoid being
disqualified and can we grow in true godliness? But how do
we hold fast to Christ? Where do we get the strength
when there's so many false teachings, when there's so many sins within
us, so many influences of the world pulling us away from Christ?
How do we do it? By remembering that he's holding
fast to us and that he held fast to us when it was most difficult
for him to do so. Hebrews 13 says that the bodies
of the animals that were given as sacrifice for sin were burned
outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside
the gate in order to sanctify his people through his own blood. Jesus suffered outside the camp.
It says sanctify his people. Interesting, not only does Christ's
atoning work justify us, forgive us, as a one-time event, His
atoning work is also making us holy, sanctifying us. How? Because when we remember Christ,
when we remember his atoning and loving sacrifice for us,
the more our hearts are warmed by it so that we're enabled to
embrace him more and more instead of sin. Jesus suffered outside the camp
for us. On Golgotha, the city dump, Jesus,
the Son of God, was raised up on a cross to draw all men to
himself. At the time when we all would
have abandoned us, Christ held fast to us in love. He held fast to us in love until
the last hammer and nail was hammered through his hands. He
held fast to us in love until the last whip tore away his flesh. He held fast to us in love until
the last drop of wrath for our sin was poured out. And then
mustering all his strength, he cried out with every ounce of
energy he had left, it is finished. It is finished. Our condemnation,
our guilt, death itself, it is finished. Christ doesn't condemn
us. Don't let others. That's Paul's
message in this passage. For I am sure that neither death
nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else
in all creation will be able to separate us from the love
of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Hold fast to Jesus because He
held fast to you on the cross and He's holding fast to you
now at the right hand of the Father, interceding for you.
Embrace Him. Run to Him. and never let go
of him so that one day you can stand before God's throne and
hear him say, pardoned by the blood of the lamb, enter into
my rest and into the joy of your master. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you
do not condemn us, that you died and that you were raised for
us. I pray God that you would warm
our hearts with the gospel. We can so often be like buckets
of cold water that freeze over because of our sin, because we
forget your incredible love for us. Melt our hearts by remembering
how you held fast to us in love on the cross and that you are
even interceding for us now. that we might embrace you and
forsake sin more and more, that we would truly grow in godliness.
And I pray that you would help us never to let ourselves be
judged and help us to not disqualify ourselves by letting go of Christ
who has never let go of us. We pray this in Christ's name,
amen.
Only God Can Judge
| Sermon ID | 10202413514290 |
| Duration | 49:51 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Colossians 2:16-23 |
| Language | English |
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