Colossians 2 — Colossians 2-3

0:00 Well, good morning. Very encouraged to hear about your Vacation Bible School and excited and nervous and fearful for our own Vacation Bible School. We still have ours coming ahead in a couple of weeks and a lot more work to do. I was talking to Andy and a couple of other people that next year I'd like to see what you guys are doing and see how much of this stuff I can just borrow for just a truck apparently. But this is great.

0:40 So, I'm glad to hear that there were a lot of kids and I'm sure the gospel was preached and that's a wonderful thing. Things are going well in Detroit. Since the last time I was here, we've had a little baby girl. So, if you think of it and have the time, go and see little Bonnie Estelle. Today is her two month birthday.

1:06 So, she is still pretty little. But we love her very much and are just so full of the Lord's blessing. He is so good to us. I think that since the last time I was here, I turned 30 years old. My birthday is in February, so I don't know if I've been here since then.

1:27 But I am now 30. So, that means old. That the time that the Lord began his earthly ministry. So, I better get going. But as a surprise, my family bought me tickets, plane tickets to go down to Texas.

1:50 And I went down with my dad and my brother to a Bible conference in March. I don't know, it was in April. But that was a lot of fun. And one story from that conference, my dad and I sat next to a woman on the plane ride down and we sat down and there she was reading her Bible. And my dad sat right next to her and so we started up a conversation with her.

2:16 He's absolutely excellent with things like that. I usually try my hardest to make some sort of a bridge, but he can talk to anyone he meets off of anything. He just observes the small little thing about them and he can tell their whole life story. So, I'm not like that, but he is. So, he thought he knew her, but as it turns out he didn't, but that didn't phase him at all.

2:37 So, he just kept talking to her and it turns out her story was that she was raised Catholic, but then got saved by just reading the Bible. And so, she had been reading the Bible. Now, she was very understandably upset with Catholicism that she didn't learn how to be saved. But that spilled over to her being distrustful of being a part of any church. And so, what she did was just read the Bible.

3:08 And that was her only spiritual input. So, was so excited and it was really exciting to see how the Lord worked that out for us to just talk to each other. In fact, she said that outside of her family that my dad and I were the only people that she had ever talked to about spiritual matters since she got saved. We got off the plane and my dad said, how about we pray right now? He said, pray right now?

3:36 I don't know, what do I do? She never prayed with anybody before. So, she was a it was just really exciting because she there was a lot of questions that she has. So, we talked for the whole couple hours about spiritual matters. And one of the things that she was concerned about was what should she be doing on Saturdays?

3:54 The Bible does talk a lot about keeping the Sabbath. Does she have any responsibility? Now, she knew she couldn't do things like they did in Bible times, but maybe she should set apart Saturdays for extra spiritual activities, because there's a lot in the Bible that talks about obeying the Sabbath. Her heart was open and she wanted to do the right thing. And she didn't know what was her relationship to the law.

5:13 And more than that, they would have a sincere desire to work for God because they love him and not to earn their salvation. But as that individual finishes the Gospel of John, what would they look like? Would not be what we would call a Christian. It would be what we would or what the Bible calls a God fearer, Gentile convert to Judaism. At the end of reading the gospels, they would want to do things, special things on the Sabbath.

5:50 They would abstain from certain foods as unclean and try to keep the Old Testament law. But as the person opened up the book of Acts and then specifically read through the epistles, all of that would change. Because it's in the book of Acts and also the epistles that we learned that God has temporarily paused his program with Israel and is now building a new man called the church. The Old Testament was directed towards Israel. But believers in this day and age are not a part of Israel.

6:28 They are a part of the church. And that means their nature is fundamentally different and they live by a different code. Well, no book of the Bible stresses this idea more than the book of Colossians. And so, we're going to continue on in your series in Colossians. We're going to start in verse 16.

7:34 And as you turn there, I'm looking at the time here and it says that I have a half an hour. I have written up here a whole paper on Colossians two sixteen-twenty three. I'll post it on the internet and whoever posts the who is it that posts the messages? All right. So, I'll give you a link.

7:51 And if you're interested, you can read the whole 10 page paper, but we're not going to be able to go through all the information. So, you can go to the internet for deleted scenes and things that didn't make the cut for the half an hour version. All right. So, let's start Colossians two and we'll start reading in verse 16. I'm reading from the New King James Version.

9:35 In 2016 and 2017, we have what I call the purpose problem. In 2018 and 2019, we have what I call the pride problem. And in 2020 through 2023, we have what I call the passing problem. But let's go ahead and look at each one of these with a little bit more detail. In verses sixteen and seventeen, we have the purpose problem.

10:02 Once we understand the purpose of the law, we'll see that we are no longer obligated to obey it. But before we go on any further, let's talk about what we mean by the law. Paul brings up five things here. He talks about food, drink, festival, new moon and Sabbaths. Food and drink refer to the various clean and unclean laws in the Old Testament and festival refers probably to yearly holy days.

10:37 New moons probably refers to monthly holy days and Sabbaths refer to weekly holy days. But Paul doesn't mean that those are the only things that he's talking about. He just picks out five especially law like things to stand for the whole law. This is a figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole. If anybody here has been to a Bible interpretation class and I know some have.

11:10 Does anybody remember what the name of that part of speech is? All right. Synecdoche, where part stands for the whole. So, an example of that would be like if I came home and I said, Anna, pack the bug spray in the sleeping bags. We are going camping.

11:29 Well, if we actually got in the car and we got to our destination and I opened up the trunk and all I found were two sleeping bags and a can of bug spray, I would be upset. By saying pack the sleeping bags and bug spray, I mean do all the packing because we're going camping. The part stands for the whole. If that example doesn't make any sense to you, Merriam Webster gives the illustration of 50 sails means 50 ships. Or you say, how many hands on deck do you have?

12:03 Person means more, how many human hands do you have on the boat? It means how many, the hand stands for the whole person. In the same way, these five things represent the whole Old Testament law. Now, as a little bit of proof for that, look back in Colossians two fourteen. We read about the work of Christ and it says that he has wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.

12:52 Now, what was our problem? Was our problem not was our problem only that we couldn't keep the Passover, but we were fine with all of the so called moral laws? No. The whole law was against us. The whole law was our problem.

13:10 And so, the Lord Jesus died to take away the whole law. So, what Paul is talking about in verse 16 is the entire law. Now, that's significant because sometimes people break apart the law into different components, the ceremonial law and the moral law. But that won't fly. The whole law was against us.

13:31 We are not obligated to obey any of the law as such because Christ died to take all of it away. So, for example, if you were to think back in the Old Testament, you think about a pretty ceremonial or yes, guess you could say ceremonial type law about not doing any work on Sabbath. Well, there was a time in which a man in the nation of Israel was found picking up sticks on the Sabbath. And Moses and the people asked the Lord, what should we do about this problem? Now, what did God say?

14:08 Did he say, well, it's just the ceremonial law and it's really not that big of a deal. It's not like he killed anyone or committed adultery. Just give him a break. No, he said you need to stone him with stones until he dies because anyone who breaks the law, any of the law is guilty. So, what we have here in Colossians two is a consideration of the believer's obligation to the whole Old Testament law.

14:35 And he says that no one is to judge us according to the Old Testament law. And the reason that it's given is because these things are a shadow of things to come. We have the same idea expressed in Hebrews eight:four-five that there are priests, sorry, there are priests that offer gifts according to the law who serve the copy and shadow of heavenly things. It's also in Hebrews ten:one, For the law having a shadow of good things to come can never make and not the very image of the things can never make the comers thereto perfect. The idea of a shadow is that it tells you of something else that cast the shadow and it gives you a vague idea of what the reality is.

15:29 So, think of an illustration of a stereotypical thriller, a suspenseful movie in which there's some sort of bad guy and you're hiding from the bad guy and you watch this person hiding and then up creeps a shadow and your heart starts to race because you see the shadow. Now, does your heart start to race because you see the shadow? Well, it's not because the shadow itself can do any harm. It's because when you see the shadow, you know there must be something casting the shadow. And also, it's a little bit scary because you only see the shadow and you don't know exactly what the person looks like.

16:13 You can just get this vague idea that he's got a gun or whatever it is. In the same way, the significance of the Old Testament laws that it points to somebody else. It is secondary and its purpose is to remind us that there is someone who is casting it. You can get rid of a shadow, but you can't get rid of the person and still have the shadow. For example, if you were to stand out in the direct sunlight and it's 10:00 in the morning, you would cast a shadow.

17:20 Another illustration would be like if I were to stand outside with Anna, my dear wife and on a bright sunny day, see your shadow cast on our nice patio, say, Anna, you're so gorgeous. And just look at the shadow the whole time and never actually look into her face. Something would be very wrong, very, very wrong. And in the same way, a person whose focus is on the Old Testament law and what I need to do and the different commands God gives, but never sees the reality which is Christ has their priorities backwards. Well, verse 16 says that we are not to let anyone judge us.

18:09 Now, does this mean that we can't obey the law or that we just don't have to obey the law? Well, let's think about a thoroughly discussed shadow in the New Testament, which is circumcision. After all, in Colossians two, if you look once again just a couple verses earlier, it says that in verse 13, And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him having forgiven you all trespasses. The verse that I'm actually thinking of is verse 11 here. In him, you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.

19:03 God gave an ordinance in the Old Testament, circumcision, but this was to point people to the one who would be their true circumcision. The removal of the flesh was to point to somebody who would remove their actual sin And that was the Lord Jesus. So, we need to be circumcised because Jesus Christ is our circumcision. As Paul says in one Corinthians seven nineteen, circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. We are not bound to it because we have the reality.

19:38 However, because we actually have this very real liberty, we then are free to do what is best for the sake of the gospel. As you go through the book of Acts, you will remember that Paul takes this young disciple named Timothy. And the first thing that he has him done is the first thing that he does is he gets him circumcised because his father was a Greek, but his mother was a Jew. And the reason that he does that is so that way he would have more of an inroad with presenting the gospel to Jews. However, he takes later on another disciple named Titus.

20:19 And both of Titus' parents were Gentiles. And we read very clearly in Galatians two that Titus who was a Greek was not compelled to be circumcised. In fact, he tells the Gentile believers in Galatia that if you become circumcised, Christ is of no profit to you at all. So, we have this real freedom to obey the law or to not obey the law. We independent of it.

20:45 We are free from it, but we should use that freedom for whatever would best serve sharing the gospel with others. Titus was not circumcised because if that was the case, then it would contradict, it would be a slap in the face to the gospel of grace because there was no Jewish parentage to worry about. As an illustration of what this whole point is, imagine that you have maybe there are some people here who do have a Catholic family. And imagine that they offer for Christmas or whatever it is for you to come to church with them and they say, we're going to be partaking of this thing called the Eucharist. And for us, we believe that that literally is the body of Christ and it is a way for you to earn grace.

21:48 Now, a person could think, well, just a little wafer. I'm sure they don't lace it with poison or anything like that. I could eat it and it would be no big deal. And our salvation does not depend on that action at all. We are complete in Christ.

22:08 But, if a person was to go to a Catholic church and partake of that Eucharist, it would mean something. And as far as their public testimony, it is concerned, people will be watching thinking that he believes that is the body of Christ. And that action would be a slap in the face to the gospel of grace. It would be a bad testimony for everyone else. Just like Titus' circumcision would have been a bad testimony to everyone else.

22:39 So, while we have perfect liberty, we need to use wisdom to know what would best serve the purposes of God. Well, that is what I've called the purpose problem. We'll move on now to the pride problem. In verses eighteen and nineteen, Paul talks about the motive of those people who say we must obey the law. His argument is not that they are uneducated or that they have a misplaced zeal, but instead that they are proud, that they are puffed up, that they have a worldly false religion.

24:02 And either one really fits and makes a lot of sense. Paul could mean that angels receive the worship. And in fact, we have a lot of documents to say that a lot of people did actually worship angels in the early first century and later on. In fact, there was a monument in Colossae erected for the archangel Michael whom people worshipped. But, over and over again, we are told that we are not to worship angels.

24:39 So, Paul could clearly be arguing against worshiping angels. You remember that in the book of Revelation that the Apostle John falls down to the feet of an angel. And the angel says, see that you do not do that for I am your fellow servant and of your brethren, the prophets of those who also keep the words of this book worship God. However, that phrase, the worship of angels could be understood in another way. It could be the worship which angels do.

25:13 So, for example, when we say the love of God, we mean that God loves. The worship of angels could be angelic worship. If that was the case, Paul is referring here to this thing called Merkabah mysticism. I have a quote here that describes what this practice was. The Merkabah refers to Ezekiel chapter one and the throne chariot of God that Ezekiel saw.

25:40 This teaching spoke of days and fastings to prepare for a journey to the heavens to see God and have a vision of him and his angelic host and worship. One could withdraw and eventually go directly into God's presence. Thus, this false teaching emphasized the humility of ascetic practice, visions, the rigors of devotions, treating the body harshly and rules about what should not be eaten or what days should be observed. All this activity was aimed to help prepare individuals for the experiment, for the experience that took them beyond what Jesus had already provided so they could see God and his angels in heaven. So, if that's what Paul referred to, we could understand the worship of angels is something like angelic worship where you get into this trance like state, this emotional ecstatic experience and it would seem as if you were actually worshiping with the angels.

27:03 Paul here is referring to people who think, well, that's fine for you to be a Christian, but to be a really godly, holy Christian, you have to come and check out this worship experience. There's a lot of very similar teaching like that today. It's fine for you to be a regular Christian. But if you want to be a really holy Christian, you've got to come to our church and experience our worship. And you will get so emotional and your heart will be stirred.

27:38 It is placing something besides Christ alone as our sufficiency. That was happening back then and it still happens today. Now, what I'm not saying is that all of our songs need to be boring and drab and you can't have the piano ever or else that takes away from the person of Jesus Christ. But the point is that the emphasis needs to be the Lord Jesus, not on how I feel or anybody else who's leading anything. The focus, the emphasis needs to be on the person of Jesus Christ.

28:15 And as a little litmus test for you to decide whether or not or for anyone to decide whether or not that actually is the case. Think about what would happen if we took away some of these externals. If a person is used to, let's say, having a worship experience in which there's guitars and drums and a flute and who knows what all sorts of other things are up there. And they're singing songs about the Lord Jesus and they're wondering to themselves, is my worship really all about Jesus Christ or is it or do I depend on some of these other externals? Well, the way that you can test that is by taking away the externals.

28:59 What happens then when you go to another place where all of those things are absent? Can you still worship the Lord Jesus? He's there. What else do you need besides him? So, if you were to be transported from that environment into which you really only have the Lord Jesus and find that you can't worship, then there's a spiritual problem there.

29:24 Because all we need is the Lord Jesus. For the sake of time, there's a lot of other really great points here in these few verses. But let me just point out these last couple phrases. He says that such a person who demands the law is vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head. Several groups, several individuals have extra rules, extra things that you need to be holy or to be a real Christian besides the Lord Jesus.

30:12 And at first, it seems like they're really humble. Because they're saying, no, you've got to do this also. The Christian life is very difficult. It's very hard. I don't have everything figured out yet.

30:26 I haven't done all that I need to do, but there's a lot for me to grow. But we do need to be doing more than just believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and looking for him to sustain us. Paul describes these people, however, as vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head. To such person, such a person, the question needs to be asked, why isn't Jesus enough to be a godly individual? Think about that question.

31:05 Why isn't Jesus enough? Perhaps, there are some people here and I think this is something that every single person has the tendency with, tendency to be legalistic. Let's think about our own lives and wonder why isn't Jesus enough? When we start to add other things, we are not holding the head. We have lost touch with our sufficiency in Jesus Christ.

31:33 I'm sure you're very familiar with it. I know I am with people who say that well to be a really godly Christian, you can't wear these clothes and your hair can't look like that and you can't eat this. All of those sorts of external things, that sort of legalism is not just a difference of opinion or that somebody's uneducated. Paul describes it as being vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind. Legalism is of the flesh and it detracts from the person of Jesus Christ.

32:44 We read that we have died to the law. And so, there's no reason for us to be bound to the law. We read that well, here let's let me read it verbatim. He says, Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why is the living in the world that you subject yourselves to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using.

33:18 What we eat, what we wear, what we drink. It's all here today and gone tomorrow. It's all in the body and out of the body. Now, we had the time, we could turn to Mark chapter seven in which the Pharisees were complaining with the Lord Jesus about why don't your disciples eat with washed hands? And that's where he says, it's not what goes into the body that makes a man unclean, but it's what comes out of the body that makes a man unclean.

33:47 Because what goes into the body is eaten, digested, and then it passes. And the idea is the same thing here. They perish with the using. Or as we'll say later in verse 23, they are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. Think about the silliness of saying that in order to be a real godly person, you can't eat this or drink that.

34:11 Well, what you ate or drank yesterday is now gone. Does it ever actually help me love the Lord Jesus more because I did or didn't eat a hotdog yesterday? Obviously not. In the moment of temptation, it does not give me the extra spiritual boost that I need. It is of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

34:38 If anything, it only turns our attention away from Christ and onto our own actions and works and is therefore hurtful. He also says that we should not obey these things because of the commandments, because they are according to the commandments and the doctrines of men. Now, at one time, well, let's think about this. Did God ever tell us to not eat certain things? Does God have the right to tell us to not eat certain things?

35:18 You bet you. That's how we got into this whole terrible situation, wasn't it? God told Adam, don't eat. And because he disobeyed, the world was plunged into sin. But the commands today to not eat, if anybody commands you today to not eat or to not drink, it is according to the commandment and doctrine of men because today God has lifted all those requirements.

35:46 So, if anybody says it today, it is not from God. It is purely a human command. In fact, as a cross reference for you to look up later, think about first Timothy chapter four where Paul says, Now the spirit speaks expressly, then in the latter times men shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and the doctrine of demons, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods. So, if somebody commands you to not eat this or to not drink that, not only is that not from God and of man, but it's also demonic. So, we are not bound to those sorts of laws.

36:29 We were in the past if we lived in the age of Old Testament Israel, but not any longer. We need to be careful and wise to take care of our bodies. Drunkenness and gluttony are certainly sins. But to prohibit any food and drink as sinful is legalistic, worldly, demonic, self imposed religion, and false humility. Every single one of us, as I said before, has a tendency to think legalistically.

37:09 Do you know why that is? Because we all still have the flesh. Because we still are essentially at our core proud and would like to talk about the things we do or the things we don't do. We all fight against the system of Satan which want and he wants as badly as possible to take our minds off of Jesus Christ. But when we do that, when we become carnally minded, that's where there's death.

37:42 But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. So, we need to be careful to keep our minds always on Christ and not fall back into the system of the law. These eight verses concentrate on why we shouldn't obey the law. Now, it'd be wonderful. Now, I was told to speak on Colossians two sixteen-twenty three.

38:11 It's very, very hard to not then move on to Colossians three:one, which gives more of the positive side. These verses are mostly don't do it this way. And it's hard to not go into Chapter three, which says, but do it this way. And you've got to mention that. Don't live your life based off the law, but do live your life based on looking to Jesus Christ, seeking those things which are above.

38:37 Let's close in a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank you so much for the sufficiency that we have in the Lord Jesus. And we realize that we all naturally just want a system of rules. Just tell us what we can do and what we can't do. How sad it is that we would take the attention off of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

39:06 We realize that he is our sanctification. He is our redemption. He is our wisdom. He is everything that we need. Help us, Lord, to live our lives focused on him and to find everything we need in him.

39:22 Keep us from our own prideful self which makes life about us, what we do and what we don't do and help us to stay away from teaching which says that it's based on what we do or what we don't do. We pray that you would conform us more to be like the Lord Jesus himself. We realize that the day is coming and it is coming quickly. We don't know exactly when it will be, but it is coming quickly, one day at a time. Now is the hour of our salvation nearer than when we first believed.

39:56 And then we will be like the Lord Jesus for we will see him as he is. What a wonderful prospect we have ahead of us. So, help us, Lord, to seek those things which are above and to realize that this earth, its world, its system, its way of doing things, it doesn't belong to us. It's not our home. It's not fitting for us.

40:17 We are in heaven. Help us to be heavenly people until we actually go to be with you in heaven. We pray these things in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. So, what you can do is you go to Westlake's webpage, go to the sermon section, look up Bruce Henning.

40:37 It'll be right.