Colossians 2:8-23

If you weren't here last week, just really quickly, I want to get you caught up.

I know there's a lot of people who weren't here.

These verses that we covered last week and the verses that we covered this week will really be taken as a whole.

And so we kind of have to do some piecing together, some combining of this week and last week.

And I gave you an outline last week so that we can kind of see the overall picture of this text.

And this is basically it, that we have a warning not to be taken by empty deceit, not to be taken by worldly, empty philosophy.

And then we have a call to the sufficiency or the supremacy of Christ over worldly philosophy.

And then the outflow of that is kind of something that's going on in the background all throughout the book of Colossians that Paul is doing.

And that is this thing called apologetics.

It kind of naturally outflows from this idea that we shouldn't be taken by empty philosophy,

that the supremacy of Christ reigns in our hearts, and the outflow of that is apologetics.

And we see this in Paul's letters as well as his preaching and his teaching.

And so last week we defined apologetics in this basic form as knowing what we believe,

why we believe it, and then being able to communicate that effectively to others.

The last part is pretty important, right?

So knowing what we believe, why we believe it, and then being able to communicate that effectively to others.

And this is really what we see Paul doing throughout the book of Colossians.

And the core of his message is in Colossians 2, verses 8 to the end of the chapter, including our text this morning.

Colossians 2:8

And so we're going to see the core of his message here is really combating heresy.

It's really combating these unbiblical ideas that are making their way,

these empty philosophies that are making their way into the church at Colossae.

And there really isn't a better time to be talking about this than right now.

Nathan's already mentioned it before, but the travesty that took place this week with the Supreme Court ruling,

I use the word travesty, not tragedy.

It's not a tragedy for us as believers.

It's important that we understand this is very much a part of apologetics,

how we react to cultural issues such as what happened this week.

And should we care about the same-sex marriage ruling?

Yes, we should.

We should care about it.

We should be concerned about it.

Should we be concerned about the direction our culture is heading in terms of how it glorifies sin over Christ?

Yes, absolutely.

We should be concerned about these things.

But should we respond in panic and outlash?

Absolutely not.

There's nothing to panic about.

There's nothing that has changed in terms of the biblical definition of marriage.

But they're redefining marriage, right?

No, they're redefining the law.

They have redefined the law.

Let's be clear here.

Whose idea was marriage in the beginning?

It was God's idea.

In Genesis chapter 2, God said that it is not good for the man to be alone.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

And so he created for Adam a suitable helper.

And right then, in the very beginning, God defines marriage.

Genesis 2, 24.

It's his idea.

It's his definition.

We can't change that as humans.

The Supreme Court can't change that.

Our President of the United States isn't powerful enough to change the definition of marriage.

So God defines it as simply as a covenant union.

A lifelong covenant union between one man and one woman.

That's what marriage is.

God gets to decide what marriage looks like.

It's his idea.

It's his definition.

The Supreme Court has the power to do a lot of things, but they can't redefine biblical marriage.

Genesis chapter 2 defines biblical marriage.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

The Supreme Court might be able to change the law.

This is important.

Don't miss this.

They might be able to change the law, but they can't put Christ back in the grave.

It means, fellow believers, that we should respond as people who have hope, and we should be living out our faith as people who have hope.

It means we don't panic when the Supreme Court tells us something like they did this week.

We live as people who have hope.

It goes all back to what we talked about last week, that Jesus is the ultimate authority over all authorities, over all rulers.

We read that last week in our text.

He is supreme over all authority.

And yes, that means he is supreme over the Supreme Court of the United States.

They might be the highest court authority, but they are not the highest overall authority.

Jesus is.

Let's not forget that.

And let's not forget that every person outside of God's grace is looking for hope.

They're looking for something to hope in, to place their hope.

And there's a lot of celebration right now in the homosexual camp because they think that they have found hope.

They think that's what they've found.

So don't alienate yourself from these people by pushing them away from the gospel.

Remember what we said last week.

Apologetics is not the vindication of me.

It's the vindication of the Christian philosophy of life.

And so we're not out to win arguments.

We're not out there to defend ourselves.

We're out to defend biblical truth.

So don't push these people away from the gospel.

Because when they finally realize that there's no hope in their lifestyle, it's going to be us standing there with open arms, ready to welcome them in to the fold of Christ.

It's going to be us as they begin to place their hope in the only one true and holy God, the only one true hope that we have.

And we've got to be ready to give a defense for the reason, for the hope that we have, which is Christ Jesus.

I left you last week with something to think about.

And I don't know how many of you have actually thought about it.

Hopefully most of you.

But this is what I said.

There's essentially 66 books of the Bible.

We're not adding any more to that.

The canon is closed.

Which means that there's a limited number of things that we believe, right?

If there's only 66 books of the Bible, it can only contain a certain amount of truth in it.

And that is what we hold to believe.

There's a limited number of things that we believe.

And if that is true, if we have a limited number of things that we believe, that means there's a limited number of objections that people can raise up against our beliefs.

And also a limited number of objections that we must answer.

And thirdly, we have those answers.

God's given them to us in Scripture.

And so my point in telling you that is that you have the ability, as a believer in Jesus Christ, you have the ability to do this thing that we call apologetics.

You can contend for the faith.

It is possible for you to do this.

This isn't just something for elite Christians.

This isn't just something for the seminary professors and then the big mega church pastors or whatever it happens to be.

This is something that you and I can and should do according to Scripture.

Contend for the faith.

It may take some practice.

It may take some boldness.

It might take some courage.

But you can do it.

And so the first thing that we really need to know, practically speaking, when we're contending for the faith,

is that I'm not responsible for defending what I do not believe.

So we're narrowing it down here.

We're even making it more simple, right?

We don't have to defend what we don't believe.

I'm also not responsible for defending heresy.

If someone asks me about heresy, well, yeah, well, what about this?

Well, that's heresy.

I don't believe it.

I'm not going to defend something that I don't believe.

I don't need to defend heresy.

I just need to know what I believe.

Well, it would be kind of like somebody walking up to you and just maybe saying,

well, what about the way the Russians handle their foreign policy?

I don't know.

Well, I'm kind of not a Russian, you know?

I don't know why the Russians do what they do.

Just ask one of them, I guess.

I mean, I'm not a Russian.

I'm also not responsible for defending assumptions in straw men.

You know what a straw man is?

A straw man is an argument that somebody is making or an argument that somebody is refuting that you didn't even make to begin with.

It's a really effective fallacy.

It's an informal fallacy that people often will make in front of other people.

If you have a group and you're doing a debate in front of people, they'll begin to attack an argument you're not even making.

And so it looks effective, but really it's a fallacy.

You've got to call those out.

It's a straw man.

Well, you guys believe, and you can just fill in the blank with whatever, whatever we're being accused of, whatever horrible thing we're being accused of this week.

Well, you guys just believe this.

I don't believe that.

Do you believe that?

I don't know anybody who believes that.

In fact, I think you're making that up.

Paul doesn't entertain assumptions or straw men in his writing or in his preaching.

There's a great example of it.

You can go look it up later.

I don't have time to go there.

But Acts chapter 17, there's a lot of questions being raised to Paul.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

Does he entertain these straw men?

No.

He doesn't entertain them.

He just calls it what it is, and he moves on.

We don't have to defend straw men or anything that we don't believe.

So what do we do?

We use the Word of God as your source of objections.

Why?

Because it is your source for what you believe.

It is your source for what you believe.

If you can't defend what you believe from the Word of God, then it means it probably isn't in the Word of God,

and therefore we probably shouldn't believe it.

So we use Scripture.

It's important.

The first thing that we need to know about these things is that it must be biblical.

Our apologetics must be biblical.

Now at this point, some people will say,

Well, Kyle, that's great if I'm talking to someone who believes the Bible,

but what if I'm talking to someone who doesn't believe in the Bible?

Then I've got to use something outside of the Bible to prove what I believe,

because they don't believe in the Bible.

Says who?

Says who?

They don't believe in the Bible, so I don't use my Bible?

That sounds like their rule.

Why would I do that?

You know what it sounds like to me?

It sounds like if I'm a knight in medieval times,

and I walk up to my opponent, and I say,

Unsheath my sword.

And my opponent looks at me and says,

I don't believe in your sword.

Well, then allow me to speak about the science of the metallurgy,

so that you may as well believe in my sword.

No.

He's either going to believe in my sword,

or he's just going to lose.

Right?

In fact, when we are arguing biblical truth with someone who does not believe the Bible,

if we give up the Bible, then they've just won.

Because we've agreed with them that there's a greater source than the Bible,

and that we don't need the Bible for truth.

The last thing you want to do is give up your Bible.

Why on earth would I allow someone else to dictate how the Word of God is communicated?

It makes no sense at all.

It's alive and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword.

So when I choose to use something outside of the Bible,

it means that I choose to use something that's not as authoritative,

and not as powerful as Scripture.

Therefore, I do not relinquish it.

Do not relinquish your sword.

The Bible compares it, actually, to a sword many times throughout Scripture.

So this is how this works.

We're going to try to simplify this so that we can understand this a little better,

and I promise we're going to get into the text.

This is all kind of work leading up to us seeing how Paul is working this out inside this text.

So this is how this works.

So first of all, it's got to be biblical,

and second of all, it has to be simple,

or else we're not going to do it, right?

If we don't make this simple for ourselves,

then we're not going to practice this in our own lives.

And so if you know seven or eight key characteristics of theology,

and you know a couple of key passages,

two or three key passages,

where these things are discussed,

no one will ever ask you a question that you can't answer.

Because most of the objections that are raised against Christianity,

they fall into one of these seven or eight categories.

And if they do ask a question that you can't answer,

more often than not, they're asking you about something you don't believe,

and you don't have to defend it.

So every question typically falls into these seven or eight categories.

So we learn these categories,

and we can begin to defend what we believe.

So the tools I promised you last week,

I told you that we're going to have some tools that we can use.

The number one tool that we have,

most of you have it in your hands right now,

the Bible.

Number one tool,

know your scripture,

know the word of God.

It's the best and most reasonable thing,

but it is large,

it's hard to know everything that's in it.

So we understand that our apologetics must be biblical,

but there are other tools that are really the training grounds for apologetics.

What are these tools?

Catechisms,

creeds,

and confessions.

Catechisms,

creeds,

and confessions.

There are three C's,

you can write that down in your notes,

help you remember them,

whatever you have to do.

Catechisms,

creeds,

and confessions.

Creeds are summaries of the gospel.

They're summaries of the gospel.

They are poetic in nature,

so they can be easy to memorize.

And there's several creeds out there.

There's the Apostle Creed.

And by the way,

these creeds,

they came out of heretical movements throughout history.

Oftentimes they would call together groups of believers,

and they would have what they called councils.

They had the Council of Nicaea.

On the other side of the Council of Nicaea,

they met together to defend heresy that was going on during this time.

And so on the other side of that,

we get the Nicaean Creed.

They come up with the Nicaean Creed.

It's used to combat heresy during this time.

So these are very effective things for us to look at and to understand.

There's the Apostles' Creed.

There's the Nicaean Creed written to combat Arian heresy of that day.

Interestingly,

Jehovah's Witness,

same heresy.

That's the Arian heresy.

Meaning the Nicaean Creed is a great tool for us.

Only a few months ago,

I had a JW knock on my door.

Unfortunately,

we didn't really have a great conversation.

They weren't really ready to have a conversation with me,

and we were trying to head out the door.

But they showed up at my door,

and we had a short conversation.

It was a little bit awkward.

But this is relevant to us today.

The Athanasian Creed answers the Jehovah's Witness heresy as well.

How do we respond to Pentecostals?

Same thing.

Athanasian Creed.

These creeds were written at times,

not unlike in our passage today,

where they were combating heresy and false doctrines.

So particularly effective.

Here's an interesting thing, too.

Our catechisms and our confessions

were designed to fit into these categories

that we're talking about.

And so you already have the categories laid out

within your confessions.

We already talked about catechisms some last week.

They're questions that we ask our learners

with a predefined response

that the learner is supposed to say

in answer to the question.

So catechisms were designed

to help us learn our confessions.

That's how catechisms work.

And so we see that we have these tools that we have.

And by the way, what's a good confession of faith?

We have one at Christ's Family Church.

Right?

Every person who is a member

should have read through this

before they decided to be a member.

And so we already have one here at our church

that outlines everything that we believe

that falls into these categories.

What's more is that we have Scripture

that goes along with those categories.

So it's a great tool for us to begin to learn.

It's really the training grounds for apologetics

so that we can begin to understand God's Word.

We can begin to understand these categories

where people might ask a question,

and then we have the biblical truth

that shows where we get that truth from.

So particularly effective.

And by the way, if you need a copy of that,

I'm sure Nathan can somehow figure out a way

to get you a copy of our Confession of Faith.

If not, in the meantime,

it is based off the New Hampshire Confession of Faith primarily.

So you can go online,

look up New Hampshire Confession of Faith,

and you'll find essentially

what is contained within Christ's Family's Confession of Faith.

Am I denying that this isn't helpful to know science?

No.

It's not.

There are helpful things,

but what we have to get right first

to make it simple

and so that we can do it

is to understand the biblical truth behind our answers.

And as we do so,

then we can add some other stuff to it.

Simply learning about fallacies and rhetoric

can go a long way

in understanding what people are doing

when they make their arguments.

And we can call them out on certain fallacies,

and they try to use tactics to trip you up.

And God bless you if you take that route.

That's great.

If you want to continue on,

you want to get deeper in your study of apologetics,

you want to get deeper in the way

that you can combat these heresies

and these other things,

these objections people are raising,

then more power to you.

That's really great.

That's extremely beneficial.

But if you want to make this simple,

you're defending what you believe, right?

You're defending what you believe.

As far as doing apologetics,

this is about you always being ready

to give a reason for the hope that is within you.

And you don't believe what you believe

because some philosopher told you to believe it.

You don't believe what you believe

because some scientist told you.

You believe what you believe

because of what's in the text.

Is there a little work that needs to be done?

Yes, there is.

There's some work that needs to be done up front.

And unfortunately,

I can't give you all the answers

in a 30 to 45 minute sermon.

So it's not going to work that way.

You've got to do some work yourself.

Come up with these ideas

and understanding of Scripture.

And then you can be confident

and comfortable when answering these questions.

Now, don't make this mistake

because we make this mistake a lot as believers.

Here's the reality.

It's that God saves sinners.

Apologetics doesn't save sinners.

God saves sinners.

So don't merely use apologetics

without sharing the gospel.

You've got to have gospel truth.

The changing life message of the gospel.

I was talking to a guy that works at UNG

the other day.

That's where I work.

For those who don't know,

I work in the IT department.

And there was a student worker

that works there.

And he's a real people person.

He's a really good person to talk to.

He asks a lot of questions.

He really wants to get to know people.

And I really love that about him.

And over the course of our conversation,

he found out that I have a seminary background

and that I used to work on staff with a church

and all these things.

And I almost cringe whenever I tell people this.

Not because I don't want to share my faith.

I love sharing my faith with people.

It's because usually the walls go up

and the conversation shuts down.

And for those of you who have been in ministry

in the past

or you just happen to know these type of people,

oftentimes these conversations just,

they're squelched

because they don't want to have a conversation

with somebody who's a professional Christian,

so to speak.

And he really surprised me

because that didn't happen with him.

It so pleasantly surprised me.

This guy didn't act this way toward me.

He really wanted to continue engaging

in this conversation.

And he said,

you know,

I used to be an atheist

and I hated the way Christians

would force their faith on people.

I just hated that.

But now,

I just say,

if that's what makes people happy,

then I'm,

you know,

more power to them.

That's great.

That's what makes you happy.

And I said,

well,

I'm not really one to force my faith on anyone

and I'm really not.

I believe to really force your faith,

you've got to try to make them believe

what you believe

and there's no way to do that.

It's impossible.

You can't make somebody believe anything.

They're going to believe

what they accept as truth.

Right?

So I'm not forcing my faith on anyone.

So I said,

I'm not really one to force my faith on anyone

but I'll tell you this,

Jesus Christ has changed my life

and I'll never be the same again.

And he said,

that's really great.

You know,

that's what makes you happy.

I'm happy for you.

That's good.

And I said,

well,

you know,

it's way more

than just making me happy.

This faith that I have in Christ

is way more.

Scripture tells us

the wages of sin is death.

And I was once

on a trajectory

that would have sent me

straight to hell.

But the gift of God

is new life

and that comes only

through the sacrifice

that Jesus paid on the cross.

And that just triggered something

in this guy's mind

and he said,

yeah,

well,

this guy I used to work with,

he told me that

if I don't believe in Jesus

and the people that don't believe in Jesus,

well,

they're going to hell.

And if that's the kind of God

that your God is

and I don't want to have anything

to do with believing in Him.

I said,

did your friend

explain God's reason behind that?

He said,

well,

no.

Since we're already talking about it,

can I explain it to you?

Let's say

that there is

a person,

a serial killer

who was caught

and the evidence

presented before

the jury

was overwhelmingly

guilty.

He is guilty.

He's killed

more than 20 people

and he

is found guilty

overwhelmingly

by his jury

and he stands

before a judge

and the judge

stands up

and he says,

your sentence

is nothing.

You're free to go.

Would that be just?

Well,

absolutely not.

It wouldn't be just at all.

He said,

he deserves the full punishment

of the law.

Right.

And in the same way,

if you commit one sin,

one sin before an eternal God,

you're infinitely guilty

before Him.

And he says

that that

requires

an eternal death,

a sentence of eternal death.

But God

in His love

devised a plan

from the very beginning.

And that plan

was to send His Son

as a substitute

for those who die,

for those who believe.

Sorry.

I mean,

that Jesus died

the death

that I should have died

and I said,

that's why

it can only be

through Jesus.

That's why.

Because it's God's plan

from the very beginning.

Because it was God's plan

to redeem us

from the punishment

that we fully deserve.

And He said,

man,

I haven't ever heard anybody

explain it to me

that way before.

Never heard it that way.

You'll notice,

by the way,

that I didn't shut Him down.

I wasn't trying to

win an argument.

I just spoke the truth

to Him in love.

And that is what

we're called to do,

believers.

It's to speak

the truth in love.

This is what Paul does

over and over and over again,

by the way,

in his letters.

He's firm in the truth,

but he speaks the truth

in love.

And last week,

we saw that we are

complete in Christ.

And this is something

that's going to be

really important

as we jump into

this passage this morning.

Because being complete

in Christ means

that we need

nothing else.

And what we're going

to see is Paul

combining a series

of heresies

which said that

we need Jesus

and something else.

So as we jump into this,

I want you to keep

that in mind.

This week,

we're going to see

Paul employing

apologetics to combat

particular heresies

that the church

was facing at this time.

So we're going to jump

right into this passage.

Colossians 2,

Colossians 2:16

verse 16.

Colossians 2,

16.

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 a Sabbath.

This is standing

directly opposed

to the Judaizers

of this day

who were saying

that we need

to keep going,

we need to keep up

the Jewish ceremonial law.

There was a lot

of stuff they had

to do.

There were certain

things that they

could eat.

There were certain

things they couldn't

eat.

There was a lot

of law that was

involved in this.

And what Paul is

saying to the Colossians

says,

look,

these people are

trying to intimidate

you with legalism.

With legalism.

So this is right

here,

this verse,

he is combating

the heresy

of legalism.

They're trying

to judge you

on what you eat

or what you drink

or whether you

attend a Passover

or whether you

attend all

these Jewish

festivals,

whether you

make your sacrifice

on New Moon

or whether you

prescribe to the

rituals of the

Sabbath day.

They're trying

to intimidate you

by saying you

need Christ

plus these

man-made rules.

They're saying

it isn't enough

to know Christ.

You have to know

Christ and keep

the Jewish

ceremonial law.

Legalism,

by the way,

is subscribing

your spirituality

to man-made rules.

Subscribing your

spirituality

to man-made rules.

Defining your

spirituality

by your ability

to keep

man-made rules.

Obeying God's

rules,

by the way,

what is that?

That's obedience.

We get this

confused too often.

And we accuse

people of

legalism

when they're

really just being

obedient to His

Word.

There's a difference

between obedience

and legalism.

Obedience,

obeying God's

Word,

God's commands

to us.

Legalism,

saying that we're

required to follow

man-made rules.

There's a difference

there.

So don't give

believers a hard

time for being

obedient.

It's really

important that we

understand that

distinction.

Paul's not

arguing against

obedience here.

He's arguing

against legalism.

Remember that

Paul uses the

word therefore

at the beginning

of this passage,

which means that

we must reconnect

this back to the

previous thought

that Paul had,

which we talked

about last week.

So in light of

the completeness

that we have

in Christ,

don't let people

place legalistic

judgment on you.

Don't let people

judge you for the

things that God's

Word hasn't said

that we have to do.

In other words,

don't sacrifice

your freedom in

Christ to

circumscribe your

life to a bunch

of rules,

a bunch of

man-made rules.

Christ has

canceled the

bondage of

law.

We see this

in verse 14.

He canceled

the record

or the debt

that stood

against us

with the

legal demands.

He nailed

it to the

cross.

Galatians 5.1

is really

helpful for us

here as well.

It says,

For freedom,

Christ has

set you free.

Therefore,

stand firm

and do not

submit again

to the yoke

of slavery.

Don't go back

to legalism.

It would be

ridiculous to

imagine that

Jesus suffered

what He suffered

on the cross

and to free

us from the

prison and

the bondage

that we were

in prior to

His suffering,

only for Him

to send us

into another

jail cell.

It would be

ridiculous to

think that.

He has set

us free to

stay free.

Now look at

verse 17.

These are a

shadow of the

things to come,

but the

substance,

the substance

belongs to

Christ.

These are the

shadow of the

things to come,

but the

substance

belongs to

Christ.

I love

this verse.

This is an

incredible verse

and I think

that on the

surface level

we don't really

understand what

it means,

so I hope I

can help you

understand that

here.

This is really

referring to the

eating and

drinking and

the festivals

mentioned in

the previous

passage.

All these

rules,

all this

Jewish

ceremonial law,

these were

things that

they had to

do.

These were

things that

were the

shadow of

the One

who was to

come.

That's what

this passage

is talking

about.

These laws,

these regulations,

all these

things that

they had to

follow,

the sacrificial

system,

this is but

a shadow of

the One

who is to

come,

and the One

who is to

come is

here.

He's arrived,

and His name

is Jesus.

All those

other things

were the

shadow that

went before

Him.

And so we

see that this

Jewish ceremonial

law, it was

there, and if

you read the

book of

Leviticus,

if you can

make it all

the way

through the

book, then

that's really

awesome, because

it is really,

really tough to

read straight

through the

book of

Leviticus.

We have a

lot of

narrative in

Genesis and

Exodus, and

we get to

Leviticus, and

man, it's like

the narrative

shuts it down,

it's really

difficult to

make it all

the way

through, and

that's really

great.

You think you

should understand

the book of

Leviticus,

because it

teaches us

what was in

the Jewish

ceremonial law

primarily.

And it also

teaches us that

there is no

way.

If you look at

the rules, the

regulations, all

the things that

they had to do

just to atone for

sin alone, it's

unbelievable.

We can't

accomplish this as

humans.

Okay?

Christ had to

accomplish the

work on the

cross for us.

And so, the

Old Testament, in

a lot of ways,

shows us our

need for the

gospel, our

need for Christ.

Those things

were the shadow.

Paul says, the

one cast in the

shadow has

arrived, and

this is Jesus.

He is the

true substance.

We no longer

need ritualistic

food and drink.

Jesus is the

bread of life.

He has come to

fulfill the

law.

Moving right

along, Paul

reaches the

second issue.

He addresses

legalism, then he

moves right

into discussing

mysticism.

So, before we

get to verse

18, what is

mysticism?

Simple definition

is a deeper or

higher religious

experience based

on personal

intuition.

So, this is

some higher

level of

spiritualism that

we're not going

to find in

scripture.

Right?

So, it's very

subjective.

A very

subjective,

experiential type

spirituality.

There's nothing

connecting it to

the word of

God.

There's nothing

that we can

connect it to

anything objective.

And so, this

experience could

be anything for

anybody.

And so, this is

what Paul says

about this.

Let no one

disqualify you

insisting on

asceticism and

the worship of

angels.

Going on in

detail about

visions,

puffed up without

reason by his

sensuous mind.

These people,

he's saying,

are puffed up by

this experience

that they had

where there's

nothing objective

about it.

Don't let

anyone make

you think that

you're missing

something based

off of unbiblical

principles or

based off of

principles that

aren't found in

scripture.

In this case,

it's mysticism and

asceticism.

You haven't

understood until

you have understood

the worship of

angels.

This is what

these people say,

you haven't had

the right visions,

you haven't

properly caused

yourself enough

suffering in

this world like

I have.

They inflated

themselves in

their own minds

because of

their experiences.

All the while,

the one thing

that they're not

doing is holding

fast to the

head.

Who is who?

It's Christ.

There in verse

19, and not

holding fast to

the head.

So this version

of heresy is

Christ plus my

visions, plus my

experiences, plus my

deeper experience,

sorry, my

experiences with

angels, plus my

deeper experience.

The first heresy

is Christ plus

rules.

This all goes

back again to

last week.

When Christ is

sufficient for

our grace, we

don't need

anything else but

Christ.

But these people,

the heresy they're

making is saying,

you need Christ

plus these other

things.

And that is the

heresy.

As a believer, do

you know what you

need?

You need Christ.

Do you know what

else you need?

Absolutely nothing.

He is all that you

need.

You don't need

rules.

You don't need

mystical experiences.

You don't need

anything else under

the sun.

You just need to

hold fast to the

head from whom

the whole body

nourished and knit

together through its

joints and ligaments

grows with the

growth that is from

God.

You just hold on to

the one who's

holding the entire

church together.

Capital C Church,

which means broad

spectrum, whole

world, capital C

church, the

church of Jesus

Christ.

Not just this

church, but all the

churches who are

gathering right now

and with one voice

worshiping God all

together this morning.

That's what we're

talking about.

He holds the

church together.

Don't be intimidated

by the world and all

its empty philosophy.

Don't be distracted

by other people's

mystical experiences

or their man-made

rules.

Peter tells us,

you have received

all things pertaining

to life and

godliness.

You have already

received it.

You don't need

anything else.

You have Christ.

Verse 20.

If with Christ you

die 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.

He says,

your union with

Christ and his

death has caused

you to die to the

elemental spirits of

the world, which

means you have

essentially died to

the philosophy and

everything else that

exists in this world.

He's primarily

speaking to

asceticism here,

which is following

a set of man-made

rules to gain

higher favor with

God.

It's asceticism.

Let me explain

this further for you.

Typically, what

this looked like

during Paul's time

and what he's

addressing is the

removing of earthly

comforts for a

higher level of

spirituality.

And so, the way

this played out was

typically a

monasticism or

what we would call

the monks who

are trying to

gain a higher

level of

spirituality by

adding more rules

to their life and

taking away earthly

comforts.

So, this is what

the monks would

typically do.

They would remove

comforts anywhere from

shelter all the way

to comfortable

clothes.

They would wear

fabrics, oftentimes

such as burlap,

in order to make

themselves more

uncomfortable in

this life.

And that was

somehow supposed to

ascribe more

spirituality or this

higher experience

with God.

Some of them would

even go as far as

to wear cotton

robes over

their uncomfortable

garments underneath,

their burlap or

whatever they wore

underneath, so that

they didn't get

favor from men,

thereby not receiving

more spirituality

from God.

This very strange

religious thing.

Early monks would

remove themselves from

the general populations,

you know, thinking

that, hey, we should

just completely remove

ourselves from the

world and that we

should go and live

secluded lifestyles,

some of them living

in caves, abandoning

the traditional

homes and things

like that, things

of that nature.

Some of them would

even go to this,

there's one particular

place that a lot of

them went to where

there's these natural

stone pillars and

they would make their

way up to the top

of the stone pillars

and that's where they

would hang out, days

on end.

And they would live

in solitude, that way

nobody can bother

them.

And then,

naturally, people see

this as a spectacle

and people by the

hundreds, often times

would come out to

this place and they

would just gaze upon

these men with a

higher calling in life

and just gaze up

at them, like, man,

what a spiritual person

for sitting up there

on that column.

I just, I don't get

it.

And I'm sure that the

laughter is because you

don't get it either.

That makes sense.

Some of these monks

even consider it sinful

to take a bath.

That's just wrong.

Gotta be clean.

And of course, those

things don't bring about

godliness.

They don't bring about

godliness.

These things are

works-based and they

are in accordance with

human precepts and

human teachings,

according to verse 22.

Then verse 23.

We have indeed an

appearance of wisdom

in promoting self-made

religion and

asceticism and

severity to the body,

but they are of no

value in stopping the

indulgence of the flesh.

He says they are of no

value.

All of these things,

this legalism,

mysticism,

asceticism,

they all have the

reputation of wisdom.

wisdom.

They all, in other

words, they look like

wisdom to the world.

You look at them,

they keep all the rules,

they have these higher

visions, they apparently

go up on pillars and

sit alone all day,

praying to God.

They take away all the

comforts that are

available to them.

And this looks good

to the world or to the

untrained, unthinking

mind.

It looks good because

they are attributing

these things to

spirituality.

spirituality.

It's a godless

religion because

they're really doing

this for who?

They're really doing

it for themselves.

They're really doing

it so they can obtain

some higher level of

spirituality.

And in the appearance

of humility, they are

nothing but a mask of

spiritual pride.

They did this for their

own spiritual pride.

Now, does this mean

that we should just all

go and indulge in every

worldly comfort that is

out there as believers?

Should we indulge

ourselves in everything

that is out there?

No.

Because a lot of these

earthly comforts are

sin.

One of the prerequisites

to following Christ is

denying yourself.

Denying yourself.

These people, these

ascetics, these people

who are doing these

different things that

are attributing higher

righteousness to

themselves, they're not

doing this for

righteousness.

They're not doing it

to follow Christ.

They're doing it for a

higher level of

spirituality.

They're doing it for

themselves.

So Jesus said in

Matthew 16 and 24,

If anyone would come

after me, let him deny

himself, take up his

cross, and follow me.

Self-denial is key.

But asceticism is not

self-denial.

It's the practice of

self-righteousness.

And when we try to

attribute righteousness

to ourselves apart from

God, we end up in sin.

It's an attempt to make

the self look better, and

therefore, it is the

opposite of self-denial.

If Christ is supreme, if

Christ is sufficient, we

don't need the world.

We don't have to have all

the comforts in the

world.

Is it okay to wear

cotton clothes?

Yes.

That's fine to wear

cotton clothes.

But we need Christ.

And that is all.

That is all.

And we see Paul here,

heresy after heresy,

stepping through,

combating it with

biblical truth, with

biblical understanding.

And so Paul argues,

you don't need extra

man-made rules.

You don't need

asceticism.

You don't need

mysticism.

You don't need

worldly philosophy.

What you need is

Christ, and Christ

alone.

And in light of our

culture that seems to be

increasingly celebrating

sin over Christ,

that's exactly what we

need to give the world.

There's a picture of

Him.

we need to give them

the gospel.

And in our words,

and in our actions,

and our example,

and the way that we

engage people that are

around us, God has

given you an influence.

No matter who you are,

you know people, and God

has placed you in this

influence that you have

to be able to talk to

people.

You have the ability to

communicate with these

people, and you have the

ability to communicate

God's truth.

So let's be confident

and work toward

understanding what we

believe, why we believe

it, and the ability to

communicate to others

effectively.

God's Word.

Let's pray together.