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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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,
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.
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.