WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.679 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:11.220 ! So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do 00:00:11.220 --> 00:00:16.539 ! it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do 00:00:16.539 --> 00:00:21.719 not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and I keep it under control, lest after 00:00:21.719 --> 00:00:28.179 preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. And we saw Paul and his attitude towards those 00:00:28.179 --> 00:00:34.140 who were lost, and we saw his, in this text, his self-denial and his self-control, ultimately 00:00:34.140 --> 00:00:43.299 for his joy. And kind of our focus in our study has been the last half of 22 and 23. I have 00:00:43.299 --> 00:00:48.939 become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the 00:00:48.939 --> 00:00:55.500 sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. And so Paul, knowing that 00:00:55.500 --> 00:01:04.780 he's been liberated by Christ, he's still holding to the law of God in Christ, he's been liberated 00:01:04.780 --> 00:01:12.359 from the sacrificial system, but says still, even though I now can do some things that I couldn't 00:01:12.359 --> 00:01:20.980 have done before, I have self-control and I have self-denial that I might see people come to Christ. 00:01:20.980 --> 00:01:26.460 And so we've been talking, we've been in this vein through this summer of our liberty and 00:01:26.460 --> 00:01:31.240 how it is as Christians we should be engaging our culture for the sake of the gospel. In fact, 00:01:31.520 --> 00:01:37.939 as some have said, changing our culture, seeing Christ come into people's lives and change who 00:01:37.939 --> 00:01:42.840 they are. And that's what we've been working through together, and we've talked about a number 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:48.260 of things. We've talked about language, how it is that we should speak, art, sexuality. We've talked 00:01:48.260 --> 00:01:53.719 about patriotism, money. We talked about abortion and a number of other topics. And a lot of these 00:01:53.719 --> 00:02:04.880 topics have very simple black and white answers. Some don't. In some there is gray. Some darker grays 00:02:04.880 --> 00:02:15.460 than others. But there's a spot in between that causes us to rely on God in Christ, the spirit that 00:02:15.460 --> 00:02:21.920 dwells within us for the answers to some of these questions. And so today, not intentionally, 00:02:22.700 --> 00:02:29.980 with college students returning, but it's probably fitting, we're going to talk about Christ and 00:02:29.980 --> 00:02:38.560 alcohol. I'm using this as a hot issue to talk about all those things, all those liberties. So it 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:43.740 doesn't just include this, but in order for us to unpack it, I didn't feel like I could also talk about 00:02:43.740 --> 00:02:51.640 how we eat and how we dress, how we adorn ourselves. But this is kind of the gray area 00:02:51.640 --> 00:02:59.100 sermon this morning. So read with me now. We're back in Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 through 20. 00:02:59.700 --> 00:03:03.900 Our main text today will be in the book of Colossians, but I feel it's necessary for us to 00:03:03.900 --> 00:03:10.719 start here with the words of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, beginning in verse 17. He says, 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:17.000 Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:22.000 but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, 00:03:22.219 --> 00:03:28.819 not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the 00:03:28.819 --> 00:03:33.699 least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of 00:03:33.699 --> 00:03:39.020 heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell 00:03:39.020 --> 00:03:45.100 you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom 00:03:45.100 --> 00:03:53.920 of heaven. So we have this interesting line to walk as we're set free in Christ from the law. How is it 00:03:53.920 --> 00:04:00.700 then that we're still beholden to the law? And Christ gives us some clues to that here, and that he came 00:04:00.699 --> 00:04:11.079 to fulfill it. It's we're able to keep the law in Christ himself. And we must understand what is it 00:04:11.079 --> 00:04:15.060 that Jesus Christ is talking about when he talks about the law? Because do you know that throughout 00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:21.620 the Old Testament there are a number of different types of law? There's not just the law, but there's 00:04:21.620 --> 00:04:29.599 the moral law, there's the ceremonial law, and there's the civil law or the judicial law. And the moral law 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:36.840 is what is commonly, most commonly being spoken about in the New Testament. The moral law being the 00:04:36.840 --> 00:04:42.860 Ten Commandments found in Exodus chapter 20. Jesus summarizes them for us, brings it down even simpler, 00:04:43.060 --> 00:04:48.080 those Ten Commandments, in Matthew chapter 22, verse 37 through 40, where he says, you shall love the Lord 00:04:48.080 --> 00:04:52.620 your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:58.160 commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:04.280 depends all the law and the prophets. All right, so Jesus brings it down even simpler for us. Really the first 00:05:04.280 --> 00:05:09.160 four of the Ten Commandments are about the loving God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul. 00:05:09.300 --> 00:05:15.340 And the second to the last six commandments are about loving your neighbor as yourself, 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:21.980 serving them properly. So he even simplifies it for us a bit more. And this is the law that Jesus is referring to here. 00:05:21.980 --> 00:05:29.140 This is the law that expresses God's character to mankind. In fact, God spoke these laws and he wrote 00:05:29.140 --> 00:05:33.660 them on the stone tablets that Moses brought down from the mountain with his very own finger. 00:05:34.680 --> 00:05:43.680 These never change. We are to keep these laws, the moral law. And then the moral laws that were added 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:48.400 to that by God throughout the scriptures were meant to point to, continue to bring us back to, 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:56.620 further explain these Ten Commandments given to us. The ceremonial law was meant to be a picture, 00:05:56.719 --> 00:06:00.319 was meant to be a shadow, was meant to show, was meant to point back to the character of God, 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:06.159 was meant to show God's people how very incapable they were of doing what God had asked them to do 00:06:06.159 --> 00:06:12.279 on their own. They couldn't do it. And that's what that was about. The sacrificial system over and over 00:06:12.279 --> 00:06:18.439 and over and over and over again. Sacrifice had to be made for the people because they transgress 00:06:18.439 --> 00:06:28.179 God's moral law. The temple was a very busy place. Blood flowed constantly. There was no furniture 00:06:28.179 --> 00:06:33.079 in the temple in God's very careful design of what the temple would look like. There were no places for 00:06:33.079 --> 00:06:37.419 priests to sit down. You know why? Because they didn't need a place to sit down. Because they were 00:06:37.420 --> 00:06:46.580 constantly at work making atonement for the sins of Israel. It is significant in Hebrews chapter 1 00:06:46.580 --> 00:06:51.259 when the writer of Hebrews says that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. 00:06:51.819 --> 00:06:58.220 To Jewish readers they would have said, whoa, because it meant that the sacrifice had been made 00:06:58.220 --> 00:07:05.520 once and for all. That's what Christ meant when he said, it is finished. The ceremonial law 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:11.579 at that point was abolished. There was no need for it any longer because the perfect sacrifice 00:07:11.579 --> 00:07:18.899 had been made. So we have record of the ceremonial law. What purpose does it serve us now? To point to 00:07:18.899 --> 00:07:26.339 our inability and what is necessary to atone for our sins. Our inability to keep the law and what is 00:07:26.339 --> 00:07:32.680 required for us to be righteous before God. And that's found in Christ. It's a shadow of what was 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:38.280 coming in Christ. And now we have that revelation. So we don't keep the ceremonial law any longer. 00:07:38.540 --> 00:07:44.620 We don't have an altar here, right? Because we don't make sacrifice any longer. Jesus Christ made 00:07:44.620 --> 00:07:51.120 that sacrifice and it's finished. And then there's the civil law or the judicial law. At the time, 00:07:51.819 --> 00:07:58.019 they were living under a theocracy. God ruled over Israel. And so all of those civil laws, 00:07:58.019 --> 00:08:03.799 the judicial laws, things like if a child is disobedient to his parents, you're to take him 00:08:03.799 --> 00:08:10.959 out to the gate and stone him to death. Things like that were meant to show us how seriously God takes 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:20.319 sin. I would not suggest now we punish disobedient children in the same way. Although God still requires 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:26.039 that children be obedient to their parents. We should still be pressing our children to do that. 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:32.279 Children, you should be keeping that law. But we don't punish it the same way because the government 00:08:32.279 --> 00:08:37.159 that God's placed over us, which we're told to obey, would not like it if we stoned our children. 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:44.019 So we're then freed from that. So here's what Jesus is talking about. He's saying he has come and 00:08:44.019 --> 00:08:52.700 he's bringing to us power to give us righteousness that we might keep God's moral law. So we're set 00:08:52.700 --> 00:09:01.200 free in Christ. We have liberty from some of these things, but we're also held to an incredibly high 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:09.240 standard. So you have to hear me today as we talk through this issue. I want you to recognize your 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:16.660 liberty, but I don't want you to be licentious with it. But I also don't want you to become 00:09:16.659 --> 00:09:23.100 legalistic. And that's the two sides of this tightrope we can fall off of. It is a tightrope. 00:09:23.199 --> 00:09:29.860 Most of theology is. And we have to work to stay on it. If you're going to fall off one side or the 00:09:29.860 --> 00:09:35.199 other, you're going to become legalistic or you're going to become licentious. And we don't want that 00:09:35.199 --> 00:09:41.039 to be the case in your life. So join me. I'm going to lead us in prayer. And then we're going to dive into 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:44.599 Colossians chapter 2. Don't turn there yet, but let's pray together and then we'll do that. 00:09:47.959 --> 00:09:52.019 Father God, I love you. And I thank you so much for the great love that you've shown me 00:09:52.019 --> 00:09:57.319 in Christ. I thank you for these people who have a desire to come together on a Sunday morning 00:09:57.319 --> 00:10:03.879 and study from your word. And I pray, Father, that you will bless that as they've been drawn here by 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:09.759 you, that you will speak to all of our hearts. And as we talk about an issue that certainly we have to 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:16.039 be careful with, I pray, God, that no one misunderstands what you intend for us to do 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:23.539 with this topic. Pray that none of us become licentious. None of us become legalistic. And 00:10:23.539 --> 00:10:29.179 I pray all this in Christ's name. Amen. All right. So Colossians chapter 2. This is where we're 00:10:29.179 --> 00:10:38.259 going to camp a little bit. I used to work for Truett McConnell College and Truett McConnell 00:10:38.259 --> 00:10:44.460 gave me a computer that I could use. And so my typical habit was to type notes and print them, 00:10:45.299 --> 00:10:49.460 have them available. And when I stopped working there, I no longer had the computer. And so I 00:10:49.460 --> 00:10:55.779 went and bought myself an iPad because I figured most things I do, I can do on it. But copying and 00:10:55.779 --> 00:11:01.980 pasting text out of my ESV study Bible on the iPad, I can't do. So we're going to turn more today than 00:11:01.980 --> 00:11:07.420 we ever do because I have to get there to see it. So I hope that's okay with you. All right. 00:11:07.980 --> 00:11:09.980 So Colossians chapter 2. We're going to start reading in verse 16. 00:11:12.060 --> 00:11:17.620 Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a 00:11:17.620 --> 00:11:22.820 festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance 00:11:22.820 --> 00:11:28.240 belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:33.399 going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind and not 00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:37.799 holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints 00:11:37.799 --> 00:11:43.820 and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of 00:11:43.820 --> 00:11:49.279 the world, why as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? Do not handle, 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:54.639 do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:59.779 precepts and teachings. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made 00:11:59.779 --> 00:12:05.860 religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they have no value in stopping the indulgence 00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:12.879 of the flesh. And my main concern, what I want to talk about primarily, is something that plagues us 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:20.779 all. We all have the danger of slipping into legalism. It is rampant. You may not know this because we 00:12:20.779 --> 00:12:26.339 don't have it on our sign, but we're a Southern Baptist church. Southern Baptists are legalistic 00:12:26.339 --> 00:12:32.559 about the topic of alcohol. I think probably every Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, 00:12:32.899 --> 00:12:37.839 and probably every Georgia Baptist Convention annual meeting, there's a new resolution passed against 00:12:37.839 --> 00:12:42.579 alcohol. I don't know why they keep doing it, as if they haven't made the point before. They just 00:12:42.579 --> 00:12:50.559 continue to pass a new resolution that Southern Baptists do not drink alcohol. And it's fairly 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:57.539 legalistic, and my fear with that is that legalism says that you should look like me, not you should 00:12:57.539 --> 00:13:08.039 look like Christ. Legalism is rooted in a self-reliance and not in the grace of God and Christ. On the one 00:13:08.039 --> 00:13:15.399 hand, legalism means treating biblical standards of conduct as regulations to be kept by our own power 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:21.539 in order to earn God's favor. On the other hand, it means erecting specific requirements of conduct 00:13:21.539 --> 00:13:27.480 beyond the teaching of Scripture, and making adherence to them the means by which a person is qualified 00:13:27.480 --> 00:13:35.779 for full participation in the local family of God, or the church. In the first case, we use our own 00:13:35.779 --> 00:13:41.980 power to make ourselves moral. In the second case, we use our own power to make the church moral. 00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:49.500 In the first case, we rally, we fail to rely on the power of God for our own sanctification. In the 00:13:49.500 --> 00:13:57.060 second, we fail to rely on the power of God for the sanctification of others. And that is the danger. 00:13:59.019 --> 00:14:06.639 It is rooted, legalism is rooted in unbelief. It's rooted in unbelief that God will complete the good 00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:15.519 work that he began. That's Philippians 1.6. In Philippians, Paul is confident. He tells the 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:24.159 Philippian believers that they will be perfected one day. He's not doubting God's work in their life. 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:30.100 He even says that if God hasn't yet revealed this to you, he will. What I'm telling you now, you should 00:14:30.100 --> 00:14:34.120 believe to be true about the gospel. If he hasn't yet revealed it to you because you're his children, 00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:44.000 he will. He had a sure confidence and therefore was not a legalist. So the redemptive work of Christ has 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:50.700 set us free from legalism. We don't have to be that way. We don't, aren't meant to live under our own 00:14:50.700 --> 00:14:57.879 power anymore. We're meant to live in full reliance on the grace of God. And so in light of the redemptive 00:14:57.879 --> 00:15:03.600 work of Christ, I want to show you five things from our text this morning, right? Five things. Number one, 00:15:05.899 --> 00:15:14.759 what a person eats or drinks is not a basis for final judgment. What a person eats or drinks is not a basis 00:15:14.759 --> 00:15:20.480 for final judgment. The only basis for final judgment where somebody will end up for eternity 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:28.200 is whether or not they're found in Christ. Whether or not they have saving faith in the one, 00:15:28.700 --> 00:15:36.460 the one way back to God. When they stand before God and are judged, are they clothed in Christ's 00:15:36.460 --> 00:15:45.720 righteousness and seen as holy? Or are they not? And all of their sin is exposed. That is the only basis 00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:55.840 for final judgment. Now, those of us in Christ are meant to live holy lives, right? The evidence of 00:15:55.840 --> 00:16:03.080 who we are, of where our faith is, is our work. So we're not saved by our work, but our work shows 00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:10.279 that we're saved. So we must handle things like this carefully. So ultimately, we're not judged for this. 00:16:10.660 --> 00:16:15.700 Verse 16, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new 00:16:15.700 --> 00:16:24.480 moon or a Sabbath. But however, what and how a person eats or drinks, dresses, matters. 00:16:25.800 --> 00:16:32.080 Paul speaks to it. Ephesians 5, 18 says, do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery or an 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:39.060 abandonment of that which is life. Prodigality, it's licentious, to be drunk with wine. There are 00:16:39.059 --> 00:16:46.439 strong warnings all throughout scripture about wine. One example, Proverbs 21, says, wine is a mocker, 00:16:46.759 --> 00:16:55.719 strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. But it says, whoever is led astray 00:16:55.719 --> 00:17:03.239 by it is not wise. It doesn't say whoever partakes of it is not wise. And I am not willing to make a 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:10.640 regulation for you as an individual, for us as a church, that's not in the scriptures. That would be 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:15.019 isogesis. That would be reading in the scripture what we want it to say, not reading out of scripture what it 00:17:15.019 --> 00:17:21.660 actually says about the topic. So there's strong warning. We certainly should be very careful 00:17:21.660 --> 00:17:29.120 with how we handle alcohol, but we cannot make it a law that you cannot drink. This is going up on our 00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:32.779 website. I'm sure I'm going to get in all kinds of trouble if anybody in the SBC ever discovers us. I 00:17:32.779 --> 00:17:39.559 doubt they will, but to say such a thing. But here's the deal, all right? But here's the deal. We could 00:17:39.559 --> 00:17:43.839 take this a step further, and I want you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians. Put your finger, put your 00:17:43.839 --> 00:17:46.919 Bible marker, 1 Corinthians chapter 8. 00:17:46.920 --> 00:18:00.600 Which does not speak specifically to the issue of alcohol, but to food being offered to idols. 00:18:01.500 --> 00:18:08.120 And the Jews avoided this at all costs. Okay? But the gospel liberated them to eat meat that had been 00:18:08.120 --> 00:18:13.180 offered to idols. It was offered to idols and sold in the marketplace, and Paul's writing about that, and the 00:18:13.180 --> 00:18:22.340 principle applies. Chapter 8, beginning in verse 8. Food will not commend us to God. What we eat, what we 00:18:22.340 --> 00:18:26.820 don't eat, what we drink, what we don't drink. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we 00:18:26.820 --> 00:18:32.700 do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a 00:18:32.700 --> 00:18:39.440 stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:45.920 will he not be encouraged. If his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols. And so by your 00:18:45.920 --> 00:18:50.380 knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus sinning against 00:18:50.380 --> 00:18:55.460 your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food 00:18:55.460 --> 00:19:00.019 makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. 00:19:00.900 --> 00:19:03.980 So what is Paul saying there in 1 Corinthians? 00:19:03.980 --> 00:19:10.980 He is saying, if somebody else has an issue with it, should you do it? 00:19:12.980 --> 00:19:20.460 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Paul said, to the weak, I have become weak. And that could be frustrating. 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:25.099 That could be really frustrating, because we don't want to be judged for things we do that we've been 00:19:25.099 --> 00:19:32.599 given the liberty to do that we would like to enjoy. But more than that, I want to experience the 00:19:32.599 --> 00:19:36.399 advance of the gospel. I want to see people come to know Christ and share with them in its blessing. 00:19:36.919 --> 00:19:42.279 So what's more valuable to me, that people come to know Christ and I can share in that blessing 00:19:42.279 --> 00:19:51.339 forever, or a drink on a Saturday night? Put those on a scale, right? I don't drink because of my 00:19:51.339 --> 00:19:57.279 position, primarily. I don't want anybody to come here and not hear what I'm saying, because they may 00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:06.240 have seen me out at a restaurant the night before. It's just not worth it to me. But even with that, 00:20:06.879 --> 00:20:13.259 even with 1 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul's saying, be very, very careful. It's not worth it. If you 00:20:13.259 --> 00:20:16.879 have any doubt in your mind about whether or not you should be doing the thing you're doing, don't 00:20:16.879 --> 00:20:25.399 do it. I think our congregation as a whole should barely ever drink. We certainly should never be known 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:36.380 for it, right? And there are congregations that are known for it. We must be so, so careful, and not 00:20:36.380 --> 00:20:41.940 in our self-denial and our self-sacrifice, not that we're really ultimately missing out on anything, 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:48.900 right? Because there's greater blessing stored up for us as we live to Christ. Now, as a caveat, 00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:54.180 there's a lot of young people in the room, and I don't know all of you. I would presume that many of 00:20:54.180 --> 00:21:01.860 you are under the age of 21, I am not giving you permission to go drink. It is illegal for you to 00:21:01.860 --> 00:21:06.799 do that, all right? We could be talking about, you know, people will say, you know, look at all the 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:11.299 things alcohol does, all the things it causes, all the alcoholism, which is rampant in our society. 00:21:11.360 --> 00:21:16.000 There's no doubt about that. It does, it can have unhealthy effects, but you could also argue that it 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:21.039 has some healthy effects. I've heard many studies on glass of wine a day, fending off heart disease, 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:24.139 and things of that sort. So, you can make that argument either way. You could carry the same 00:21:24.139 --> 00:21:29.559 argument to cars. People die in cars all the time. Should we all stop driving? No, we shouldn't stop 00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:35.539 driving. We should be careful when we drive, but if you're under 16, you shouldn't drive, right? Because 00:21:35.539 --> 00:21:43.079 the law doesn't allow that to happen. I can remember being in high school and having kind of an open 00:21:43.079 --> 00:21:47.519 discussion high school, Sunday school class, and this is like the only issue that anybody wanted to 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:52.359 talk about. And the main guy that was making the argument, I have a horrible memory, but I can 00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:57.059 remember him. His name was Rob, and he really, really, really wanted permission from our Sunday 00:21:57.059 --> 00:22:01.740 school teacher to drink. He really wanted the Sunday school teacher just to say, you're right, you're 00:22:01.740 --> 00:22:06.680 right. There is no commandment. There is no black and white on the issue. It's a gray one. He really 00:22:06.680 --> 00:22:11.920 wanted him to say that, and to the point of annoyance on my part, and I finally just said, Rob, you're 17. 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:17.940 Think about it in four years. It doesn't matter right now. That makes no difference. So if you're 00:22:17.940 --> 00:22:26.539 under 21, stop thinking I'm giving you permission, because I'm definitely, definitely not. So it's 00:22:26.539 --> 00:22:34.560 not the basis for final judgment, okay? Number two, second implication, the redemptive work of 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:42.339 Christ that we can find here in Book of Colossians chapter 2. The fullness of deity dwells in Christ, 00:22:42.579 --> 00:22:50.220 not in our practice. Verse 17 and 18, these are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance 00:22:50.220 --> 00:22:56.039 belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in 00:22:56.039 --> 00:23:03.720 detail about visions, and puffed up without reason by his sentious mind. As is always the case, there's false 00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:09.339 teaching in the church. And from the beginning, the beginning of remittance of history to now, there's 00:23:09.339 --> 00:23:15.019 false teaching in the church. And what was going on in the church of Colossae was that they were being 00:23:15.019 --> 00:23:21.400 led to very strict regulations, man-made regulations, that's the asceticism part, and then the worship of 00:23:21.400 --> 00:23:25.500 angels. And it was false, and it caused these people to be puffed up and to think that they could 00:23:25.500 --> 00:23:32.600 accomplish holiness on their own, and it's bad, bad theology. Paul writes to the Galatians in chapter 3, 00:23:32.599 --> 00:23:37.139 having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? The particular wrong 00:23:37.139 --> 00:23:42.439 teaching there was circumcision. The Jews were coming and saying, for you to be holy, Christ is 00:23:42.439 --> 00:23:49.359 good, we like that, but let's add to that circumcision. It was no longer the case. Paul actually said in 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:54.859 chapter 5, verse 1 of Galatians, for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not 00:23:54.859 --> 00:24:02.339 submit again to a yoke of slavery. He says in Galatians, if you're circumcised, Christ is of no value to you. 00:24:02.339 --> 00:24:08.279 You think you can earn your salvation by the work that you do? Christ is of no value at all. 00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:16.319 So the fullness of deity dwells in Christ. You can see Colossians chapter 2, verse 9. 00:24:17.720 --> 00:24:25.419 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him who is the head of 00:24:25.419 --> 00:24:31.059 all rule and all authority. That has nothing to do with your action. It has everything to do 00:24:31.059 --> 00:24:40.879 with his. He died for your sin that he might make you perfect in him, and you have been filled 00:24:40.879 --> 00:24:49.639 in him. I heard a super cool analogy, simple analogy, talking about the us in Christ and 00:24:49.640 --> 00:24:58.700 Christ in us, and how that works out. This guy, great, funny guy, talked about Christ being the ocean. 00:24:59.640 --> 00:25:03.220 The ocean is the ocean, whether or not we have anything to do with it. The ocean is the ocean. 00:25:03.620 --> 00:25:07.900 We're like a cup floating in the ocean, like a Dixie cup floating in the ocean. It's got that little 00:25:07.900 --> 00:25:13.580 rolled corner, so it's got air in it, and it tends to float. We don't change the state of the ocean by any 00:25:13.579 --> 00:25:19.599 means, but the ocean's in us, and we're in the ocean. And that's kind of a picture. I want to make you feel 00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:27.839 pitiful by being a Dixie cup, but that's the picture of what's going on. We are found in Christ, and our 00:25:27.839 --> 00:25:38.179 righteousness is in him, not in what we do. He possesses all deity. Thirdly, third implication of 00:25:38.180 --> 00:25:47.220 Christ's redemptive work. The source of life and purity and growth is through holding fast to Christ. 00:25:48.200 --> 00:25:54.640 So we're called to that. We're called to grow in our faith. We're called to progress towards perfection. 00:25:54.920 --> 00:25:59.580 That's the fancy word for that is sanctification. We're meant to be putting off the old self, 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:06.299 Colossians chapter 3, putting on the new self. We're supposed to become more perfect. We're supposed to hate 00:26:06.299 --> 00:26:11.279 sin more and love righteousness more. That's a process that's going on in our lives, but the solution 00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:18.039 to it is not legalism. It's not erecting a bunch of rules that aren't found in the scriptures. The 00:26:18.039 --> 00:26:24.619 source of that, life, purity, and growth, is through holding fast to Christ. So here's these false 00:26:24.619 --> 00:26:29.859 teachers we saw in 17 and 18, and then in verse 19, and they're not holding fast to the head, from whom 00:26:29.859 --> 00:26:35.399 the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is 00:26:35.400 --> 00:26:44.380 from God. That's the source. Jesus Christ is where all righteousness comes from. So we go on in 00:26:44.380 --> 00:26:52.120 Colossians. Man-made, subtitles, chapter headings, verses. Those were not inspired. Chapter 3, keep 00:26:52.120 --> 00:26:59.100 reading. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, 00:26:59.180 --> 00:27:03.000 seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:07.319 earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, 00:27:07.359 --> 00:27:13.220 appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Then he goes on to tell us, beginning in verse 5, 00:27:13.460 --> 00:27:19.660 put to death the following things in your life. In verse 12, put on then, as God's chosen ones, 00:27:20.200 --> 00:27:29.900 these things, right? We cleave to Christ. We hold to him so tightly that these other issues are all 00:27:29.900 --> 00:27:36.420 sorted out for us. The issue of alcohol in your life. If you will hold tight to Christ, he will give 00:27:36.420 --> 00:27:42.259 you the answer in every moment, in every situation. Right now, I don't drink. Will that be the case 00:27:42.259 --> 00:27:49.660 forever? Probably, but I don't know. I don't know. I've got to ask that question. Sam and I might go on a 00:27:49.660 --> 00:27:55.600 fantastic vacation one day on a cruise line. I might think, this is the place I think it'd be 00:27:55.599 --> 00:28:00.279 appropriate for me to have a drink. I'll ask. That's all you have to do, right? We have a 00:28:00.279 --> 00:28:04.519 relationship with the most holy God. Is this an appropriate time, God? Would this be a good thing? 00:28:04.619 --> 00:28:11.959 Would this honor you? No? Okay. Moving on to tomorrow. Yes? Well, great. Thank you for the good 00:28:11.959 --> 00:28:17.299 thing to enjoy. I will drink it to your glory. It's a famous story about Charles Spurgeon, which I 00:28:17.299 --> 00:28:22.279 absolutely love. It's also a story about the danger of turning the pulpit over to somebody that you 00:28:22.279 --> 00:28:29.660 don't really know. He preached a sermon on little sins and how little sins tend to amass themselves 00:28:29.660 --> 00:28:36.740 into bigger sin, more licentious sinning. And he was going to give a few moments to a visiting 00:28:36.740 --> 00:28:42.819 pastor, and the pastor got up and talked very legalistically against the smoking of cigars. 00:28:43.799 --> 00:28:48.980 And if you know much about Charles Spurgeon, you know that he really liked to smoke cigars. In fact, 00:28:48.980 --> 00:28:55.380 one time he was asked how much smoking was too much smoking. And he said, well, two cigars at one 00:28:55.380 --> 00:29:02.539 time would be in excess. He liked his cigars. And the congregation knew that. I mean, so there's this 00:29:02.539 --> 00:29:08.160 man up there railing against the smoking of cigars. And the congregation knew this about him. So he 00:29:08.160 --> 00:29:14.599 stood up and he said, I just need to clear the air and say to you that I have no problem with the 00:29:14.599 --> 00:29:18.720 smoking of cigars, that it is not a sin. In fact, I'm going to go home this evening and smoke a cigar 00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:27.680 of the glory of God before I go to bed. Now, in kind of reading about that, you know, this day we 00:29:27.680 --> 00:29:34.759 have the tool of the blog, which serves some purpose, but I think more often than not it's 00:29:34.759 --> 00:29:41.140 harmful to the church. And I hate how quickly the articles go out there and the responses to the 00:29:41.140 --> 00:29:45.839 articles, and it's all so distant and people don't really know each other. That happened back then, 00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:51.899 too. Newspaper writers came to large churches and wrote articles about the sermons and what was 00:29:51.899 --> 00:29:55.879 preached, and people responded in letter. It took a little more time than it takes. You can have a 00:29:55.879 --> 00:30:03.019 whole kerfuffle explode and die down in a week with our current technology, but it happened back then, 00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:08.959 too. And I discovered that he actually ended up apologizing for the statement because he had 00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:15.680 popularized in the following months the phrase, I smoke cigars for the glory of God. And he felt 00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:20.940 like he had given people permission just to do it, just to go off and smoke, and that was the right 00:30:20.940 --> 00:30:28.860 thing to do. And he clarified his stance to say that we must carefully consider what we do, what we 00:30:28.860 --> 00:30:34.059 don't do to honor God. He said, it's okay for me. My conscience is clean about the smoking of cigars, 00:30:34.059 --> 00:30:42.019 but it may not be for you. And the apology letter was actually really beautifully written. So a really 00:30:42.019 --> 00:30:48.119 great story about that. So the source of life and purity and growth is through holding fast to Christ 00:30:48.119 --> 00:30:57.599 and not through man-made regulations. Fourth implication. Those who erect regulations do not know what it 00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:07.219 means to die with Christ. Those who erect regulations do not know what it means to die with Christ. 00:31:07.659 --> 00:31:14.719 And that means one of two things. Either they never have, they've never placed their faith in Christ and 00:31:14.719 --> 00:31:22.519 died in him to the world. That's a possibility. You find sitting here that you have kind of a legalistic 00:31:22.519 --> 00:31:27.519 mind. That that's what you strive for. You're just kind of trying to amass the rules. You're just 00:31:27.519 --> 00:31:31.279 trying to figure out exactly how it is that you think God wants you to live, to be seen good in 00:31:31.279 --> 00:31:38.740 his eyes. You probably haven't died with Christ. You don't actually understand what it means to be 00:31:38.740 --> 00:31:44.779 given the grace of God in Christ. That you could have done nothing apart from him to earn his favor. 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:51.359 And that all that favor is bestowed on you because Jesus Christ died for your sins, bore the wrath of 00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:56.799 God for your sins that you've committed, that you're currently committing. Even in this room right 00:31:56.799 --> 00:32:02.339 now, I'm sure we're sinning in some way, some of us, or going to. All that past, present, future 00:32:02.339 --> 00:32:10.479 Christ died for, it is finished. There's a chance you've never placed your faith in him. Or, if you have, 00:32:11.599 --> 00:32:19.399 you forget the gospel. We do that. All of us do that. None of us are immune to this. We have to preach 00:32:19.400 --> 00:32:26.220 the gospel to ourselves every day, every moment of every day, remembering what God has done for us 00:32:26.220 --> 00:32:33.480 in Christ so that we don't do this, so we don't erect regulations. That is what our flesh wants. 00:32:33.600 --> 00:32:38.960 That is what Satan wants. Satan wants us to think we can do it on our own. Because he knows if he gets 00:32:38.960 --> 00:32:42.519 us in that position, that's what we're going to do. And we're going to be totally fruitless. 00:32:42.519 --> 00:32:49.039 Joyless, fruitless, nothing is going to happen for the kingdom if it's us, depending on us. Now, us 00:32:49.039 --> 00:32:57.019 depending on God, nothing can stop that. So that's what's going on in your life if you're erecting 00:32:57.019 --> 00:33:00.759 these regulations. Because these people don't know what it means to die with Christ. Verse 20 through 22, 00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:06.299 if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why? As if you were still alive in the 00:33:06.299 --> 00:33:11.139 world, you submit to regulations. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all 00:33:11.140 --> 00:33:14.780 perish as they are used. He's basically saying these are elemental worldly things. They don't matter 00:33:14.780 --> 00:33:19.460 anymore according to human precepts and teachings. Why do you do that? It's because you've forgotten 00:33:19.460 --> 00:33:26.060 the gospel. That's the answer to that question. You've forgotten that you depend on God for everything. 00:33:28.140 --> 00:33:37.420 Number five, legalism is a distraction from holiness. It may not seem that way on the surface. 00:33:37.420 --> 00:33:44.740 I can remember in kind of some crisis of faith in my life asking the question, why didn't God just make it 00:33:44.740 --> 00:33:51.160 simpler? Why didn't he just give us, give us the rules? Why does his book even need to be so big? Couldn't he 00:33:51.160 --> 00:33:58.480 just pass down a list and say, live this way? And I was totally missing the point. Totally missing the point. 00:33:58.480 --> 00:34:04.900 Because I thought I could do it. God gives me the list. I can figure it out. God doesn't give us the 00:34:04.900 --> 00:34:11.740 list because he wants us to depend on him. He wants there to be gray. The gray is healthy for us. Because 00:34:11.740 --> 00:34:18.719 if we want to live righteously, we will ask the questions. We will come close to him. We will hold 00:34:18.719 --> 00:34:24.679 fast to him. Because there's no way to find the answer to some of these questions on our own. We can't do it. 00:34:24.679 --> 00:34:31.579 So we will, in fact, cleave to him. Verse 23 says, these have indeed an appearance of wisdom 00:34:31.579 --> 00:34:38.159 in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value 00:34:38.159 --> 00:34:44.319 in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. That's really clear, isn't it? The regulations that we erect 00:34:44.319 --> 00:34:50.440 that are outside of scripture, or thinking that we can accomplish the standard we're held to in 00:34:50.440 --> 00:34:58.139 scripture, either way, is of no value. You could be the strictest. You could be on the outside, 00:34:58.220 --> 00:35:05.240 the exterior. You could look so moral. Take the Pharisees, for example. They kept the law from 00:35:05.240 --> 00:35:09.460 everybody's perspective. Everybody looking at it said, if anybody's doing it right, it's them. 00:35:10.079 --> 00:35:17.000 They have got it figured out. They had all those hedge laws. They were keeping those laws. 00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:23.639 What did Christ say about them? They're whitewashed tombs, pretty on the outside, looking good in 00:35:23.639 --> 00:35:28.579 appearance, but full of dead men's bones. They weren't actually keeping the law of God. They just 00:35:28.579 --> 00:35:35.260 looked like they were. And that's what we do when we become legalistic, is we build up for ourselves 00:35:35.260 --> 00:35:43.039 a self-righteousness that's not sourced from Christ. It's of no value. Legalism is a distraction 00:35:43.039 --> 00:35:52.360 from holiness. And that's why I'm not willing to be legalistic. The issue of alcohol, as my example 00:35:52.360 --> 00:35:59.820 this morning, I will not say to you, you cannot drink. I will say to you, you probably shouldn't. 00:36:00.300 --> 00:36:07.300 There's some good warnings about alcohol. Our culture is kind of hypercharged on this issue right now. We 00:36:07.300 --> 00:36:13.500 probably should all be setting ourselves aside and not drinking. But I can't tell you not to, 00:36:13.780 --> 00:36:21.460 because it would be legalistic. And there's a great, great danger in that. John Piper wrote of this text, 00:36:22.480 --> 00:36:28.820 wherever happy confidence in the sovereign power of God for our own lives and the lives of others grows, 00:36:28.820 --> 00:36:38.160 weak legalism creeps in. So wherever we're happy and confident that God is leading us and taking us 00:36:38.160 --> 00:36:43.780 where we should go, teaching us what we need to learn, guiding our lives, wherever that kind of joy 00:36:43.780 --> 00:36:52.460 exists, weak legalism creeps in. For we inevitably try to compensate for loss of dynamic faith by increased 00:36:52.460 --> 00:36:59.860 moral resolve and the addition of man-made regulations. But wherever joyful confidence in the power of God 00:36:59.860 --> 00:37:07.099 is waning, the flesh is waxing. So wherever the confidence in God is falling off, the flesh presses right on. 00:37:07.320 --> 00:37:12.000 Which means that the very morality that we had hoped would save ourselves and the very regulations we hoped 00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:19.199 would purify our church fall victim to the massive power of the flesh and become its instruments of self-reliance 00:37:19.199 --> 00:37:28.739 and self-sufficiency. So let us not be individuals and let us not be a church that's legalistic. 00:37:29.659 --> 00:37:39.299 Let us also not be a church and individuals that are licentious. Let us pray. Let us draw closer to God 00:37:39.299 --> 00:37:47.279 through his word and through meeting with the people of God that our church will be purified by Christ. 00:37:47.280 --> 00:37:56.580 Let us have a confidence in him that that will happen. Because for all that God asks, he provides. 00:37:56.820 --> 00:38:03.460 We have to hold on to that. We cannot believe we can accomplish it on our own because it's counter-gospel. 00:38:03.620 --> 00:38:09.220 And if we do, Jesus Christ is of no value to us. Join me in prayer.