WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.700 Sure, I'll go to church every week 2 00:00:02.700 --> 00:00:04.540 if that helps me feel more righteous. 3 00:00:04.540 --> 00:00:06.980 Sure, I'll tithe or give offerings 4 00:00:06.980 --> 00:00:09.780 if that helps me feel more righteous. 5 00:00:09.780 --> 00:00:13.700 And what we're seeing is any severe or religious activity 6 00:00:13.700 --> 00:00:16.900 can have the appearance of wisdom, in Paul's words, 7 00:00:16.900 --> 00:00:19.140 but the concern is whether or not 8 00:00:19.140 --> 00:00:21.900 they actually serve to sanctify us. 9 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:27.420 Hello, we're gonna be continuing our series in Colossians, 10 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:37.300 starting with Colossians 2, 16 through 23, 11 00:00:37.300 --> 00:00:38.140 which says, 12 00:00:52.460 --> 00:00:56.360 Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism 13 00:00:56.360 --> 00:00:58.260 and worship of angels, 14 00:00:58.260 --> 00:01:02.580 going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason 15 00:01:02.580 --> 00:01:04.260 by his sensuous mind, 16 00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:07.340 and not holding fast to the head from whom 17 00:01:07.340 --> 00:01:10.820 the whole body nourished and knit together 18 00:01:10.820 --> 00:01:12.460 through its joints and ligaments 19 00:01:12.460 --> 00:01:15.380 grows with a growth that is from God. 20 00:01:15.380 --> 00:01:16.900 If with Christ, 21 00:01:16.900 --> 00:01:19.460 you died to the elemental spirits of the world, 22 00:01:19.460 --> 00:01:22.620 why, as if you were alive in the world, 23 00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:24.980 do you submit to regulations, 24 00:01:24.980 --> 00:01:29.460 such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, 25 00:01:29.460 --> 00:01:33.420 all referring to things that perish as they are used, 26 00:01:33.420 --> 00:01:36.180 according to human precepts and teachings. 27 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:39.340 These indeed have an appearance of wisdom 28 00:01:39.340 --> 00:01:41.780 in promoting self-made religion 29 00:01:41.780 --> 00:01:44.500 and asceticism and severity to the body, 30 00:01:44.500 --> 00:01:46.540 but they are of no value 31 00:01:46.540 --> 00:01:49.780 in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 32 00:01:49.780 --> 00:01:54.340 So as I was preparing and praying about this message, 33 00:01:54.340 --> 00:01:57.340 one of the things that I felt convicted about 34 00:01:57.340 --> 00:02:00.540 was making sure that as we started talking about 35 00:02:00.540 --> 00:02:04.180 what Paul is cautioning in this passage, 36 00:02:04.180 --> 00:02:06.380 that we wouldn't get lost in the weeds 37 00:02:06.380 --> 00:02:10.539 of different religious practices that happened back then, 38 00:02:10.539 --> 00:02:12.900 but we could get to the heart of the message 39 00:02:12.900 --> 00:02:16.260 that Paul is really trying to share with us. 40 00:02:16.940 --> 00:02:20.180 The question in Colossians, what makes a man good, 41 00:02:20.180 --> 00:02:23.220 is being asked in the form of a warning 42 00:02:23.220 --> 00:02:24.660 about some of the lies 43 00:02:24.660 --> 00:02:27.580 the Colossians were starting to believe. 44 00:02:27.580 --> 00:02:30.740 In warning them, he wants to help ensure 45 00:02:30.740 --> 00:02:33.020 that his audience isn't deceived 46 00:02:33.020 --> 00:02:35.420 into thinking that their righteousness 47 00:02:35.420 --> 00:02:39.460 comes from anywhere but Jesus as the head of their lives. 48 00:02:39.460 --> 00:02:42.140 He wants to encourage the Colossians 49 00:02:42.140 --> 00:02:46.220 into a confidence that cannot be disqualified 50 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:48.140 based on what rules they follow, 51 00:02:48.140 --> 00:02:51.740 rather than where they find their identity, 52 00:02:51.740 --> 00:02:53.300 which is in Jesus. 53 00:02:53.300 --> 00:02:55.540 Paul refers to things like asceticism 54 00:02:55.540 --> 00:02:58.740 and the worship of angels and severity to the body, 55 00:02:58.740 --> 00:03:03.020 which are all things that could convince of righteousness 56 00:03:03.020 --> 00:03:05.700 while still missing the mark that is Jesus. 57 00:03:05.700 --> 00:03:10.420 The word asceticism really unveils this deception. 58 00:03:10.420 --> 00:03:14.460 Asceticism means severe self-denial 59 00:03:14.460 --> 00:03:17.540 for the sake of religious or spiritual growth, 60 00:03:17.540 --> 00:03:20.220 meaning I'm going to do everything I can 61 00:03:20.220 --> 00:03:22.260 to justify myself to God 62 00:03:22.260 --> 00:03:25.900 without actually having to admit that I have a need for him. 63 00:03:25.900 --> 00:03:28.260 Sure, I'll go to church every week 64 00:03:28.260 --> 00:03:30.100 if that helps me feel more righteous. 65 00:03:30.100 --> 00:03:32.540 Sure, I'll tithe or give offerings 66 00:03:32.540 --> 00:03:35.260 if that helps me feel more righteous. 67 00:03:35.260 --> 00:03:39.260 And what we're seeing is any severe or religious activity 68 00:03:39.260 --> 00:03:43.260 can have the appearance of wisdom in Paul's words, 69 00:03:43.260 --> 00:03:45.540 but the concern is whether or not 70 00:03:45.540 --> 00:03:48.300 they actually serve to sanctify us. 71 00:03:49.140 --> 00:03:54.140 The core of this deception that Paul is addressing is pride. 72 00:03:54.140 --> 00:03:58.340 It's pride in us that tells us that we have reason to boast 73 00:03:58.340 --> 00:04:01.660 or to feel confident apart from Jesus. 74 00:04:01.660 --> 00:04:06.580 It's pride in us that tells me I can be justified 75 00:04:06.580 --> 00:04:10.140 by what I do rather than what Jesus did. 76 00:04:10.140 --> 00:04:14.940 It's when I start to think that the good things that I do 77 00:04:14.940 --> 00:04:16.339 are what make me good. 78 00:04:17.500 --> 00:04:19.860 The way that Paul puts it to help us 79 00:04:19.860 --> 00:04:22.580 is he describes it as a shadow. 80 00:04:22.580 --> 00:04:25.860 And what a shadow does is a shadow bears the image 81 00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:29.780 of a thing, but it lacks the substance of a thing, 82 00:04:29.780 --> 00:04:34.180 meaning what we do can act as a convincing indicator 83 00:04:34.180 --> 00:04:35.740 that we are good, 84 00:04:35.740 --> 00:04:38.620 but it could be the very thing keeping us 85 00:04:38.620 --> 00:04:42.420 from what ultimately makes us good, which is Jesus. 86 00:04:42.420 --> 00:04:45.580 Watch what Paul calls the things the Colossians 87 00:04:45.580 --> 00:04:49.180 were being convinced to do earlier in verse eight. 88 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:51.860 He calls them philosophy and empty to see 89 00:04:51.860 --> 00:04:54.020 according to human tradition, 90 00:04:54.020 --> 00:04:56.580 according to the elemental spirits of the world 91 00:04:56.580 --> 00:04:58.700 and not according to Christ, 92 00:04:58.700 --> 00:05:00.100 meaning to say that 93 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:02.440 They find their origin not in God, 94 00:05:02.440 --> 00:05:05.640 but they find their origin in the pride of man. 95 00:05:05.640 --> 00:05:08.240 The unique danger that we encounter 96 00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:10.320 in thinking that we are made good 97 00:05:10.320 --> 00:05:13.360 by the types of things Paul is talking about 98 00:05:14.200 --> 00:05:18.060 is that of all of my sins, I could be a coward 99 00:05:18.060 --> 00:05:21.440 and still recognize that I have a need for Jesus. 100 00:05:21.440 --> 00:05:23.440 I could be lustful and an adulterer 101 00:05:23.440 --> 00:05:26.280 and still recognize that I have a need for Jesus. 102 00:05:26.280 --> 00:05:28.080 I could have a horrible temper 103 00:05:28.080 --> 00:05:31.000 and still recognize that I need a savior. 104 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.100 Most of my sins actually shed a light 105 00:05:34.100 --> 00:05:36.180 on my need for a savior. 106 00:05:36.180 --> 00:05:39.080 But the reason why the devil wants so badly 107 00:05:39.080 --> 00:05:42.280 for you and me to succumb to the sin of pride 108 00:05:42.280 --> 00:05:46.080 more than any other is because if I'm prideful, 109 00:05:46.080 --> 00:05:49.200 I actually lose my ability to recognize 110 00:05:49.200 --> 00:05:50.680 my need for a savior. 111 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:53.000 C.S. Lewis puts it like this in his book, 112 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:54.680 Mere Christianity. 113 00:05:54.680 --> 00:05:58.800 Pride can often be used to beat down the simpler vices. 114 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:02.560 Teachers, in fact, often appeal to a boy's pride 115 00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:05.160 or as they call it, his self-respect 116 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:07.580 to make him behave decently. 117 00:06:07.580 --> 00:06:12.280 Many a man has overcome cowardice or lust or ill temper 118 00:06:12.280 --> 00:06:16.120 by learning to think that they are beneath his dignity. 119 00:06:16.120 --> 00:06:18.320 That is, by pride. 120 00:06:18.320 --> 00:06:19.280 The devil laughs. 121 00:06:19.280 --> 00:06:23.600 He is perfectly content to see you becoming chaste 122 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:26.200 and brave and self-controlled, 123 00:06:26.200 --> 00:06:29.360 provided all the time he is setting up in you 124 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:32.040 the dictatorship of pride. 125 00:06:32.040 --> 00:06:34.160 Just as he would be quite content 126 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:36.240 to see your chill blades cured 127 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:39.540 if he was allowed in return to give you cancer. 128 00:06:39.540 --> 00:06:42.120 For pride is spiritual cancer. 129 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:45.400 It eats up the very possibility of love, 130 00:06:45.400 --> 00:06:48.040 contentment, or even common sense. 131 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:51.160 First Corinthians one says this, 132 00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:53.480 but God chose what is foolish in the world 133 00:06:54.320 --> 00:06:55.240 to shame the wise. 134 00:06:55.240 --> 00:06:57.480 And God chose what is weak in the world 135 00:06:57.480 --> 00:06:59.080 to shame the strong. 136 00:06:59.080 --> 00:07:02.160 God chose what is low and despised in the world, 137 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:04.000 even the things that are not, 138 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:06.620 to bring to nothing things that are 139 00:07:06.620 --> 00:07:10.960 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 140 00:07:10.960 --> 00:07:14.480 And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, 141 00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:17.300 who became to us wisdom from God, 142 00:07:17.300 --> 00:07:20.600 righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 143 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:22.760 so that, as it is written, 144 00:07:22.760 --> 00:07:25.980 let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. 145 00:07:26.860 --> 00:07:31.080 Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption 146 00:07:31.080 --> 00:07:34.980 find their foundation in the person of Jesus 147 00:07:34.980 --> 00:07:39.160 and give us reason to boast, just not in ourselves. 148 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:41.860 It's Jesus that makes us good, 149 00:07:41.860 --> 00:07:44.640 which is why Paul finishes his thought 150 00:07:44.640 --> 00:07:47.140 in Colossians three by saying this. 151 00:07:47.140 --> 00:07:50.840 He says, if you then have been raised with Christ, 152 00:07:50.840 --> 00:07:54.400 seek the things that are above, where Christ is, 153 00:07:54.400 --> 00:07:57.400 seated at the right hand of God. 154 00:07:57.400 --> 00:07:59.440 Set your minds on the things that are above 155 00:07:59.440 --> 00:08:02.080 and not on the things that are of the earth, 156 00:08:02.080 --> 00:08:05.180 for you have died and your life is hidden 157 00:08:05.180 --> 00:08:07.020 with Christ in God. 158 00:08:07.020 --> 00:08:10.000 When Christ, who is your life, appears, 159 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.520 then you also will appear with him in glory. 160 00:08:13.520 --> 00:08:17.240 It's the same call that Jesus places on his hearers 161 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:18.960 at the Sermon on the Mount. 162 00:08:18.960 --> 00:08:21.760 We can either choose to build our lives 163 00:08:21.760 --> 00:08:24.880 on the foundation of sand, which is the world, 164 00:08:24.880 --> 00:08:27.140 or we can choose to build our lives 165 00:08:27.140 --> 00:08:30.040 on the solid foundation of Jesus, 166 00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:32.600 which is secure at the right hand of God. 167 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:35.880 Now, with all of that being said, 168 00:08:35.880 --> 00:08:38.799 I don't want the takeaway of this message 169 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:41.520 to be that it doesn't matter what we do. 170 00:08:41.520 --> 00:08:43.520 It's actually the opposite. 171 00:08:43.520 --> 00:08:46.200 My encouragement to you as you digest 172 00:08:46.200 --> 00:08:48.840 what's being said in Colossians two 173 00:08:49.680 --> 00:08:53.800 is that as we build our lives with Jesus as the foundation, 174 00:08:53.800 --> 00:08:55.720 what we do would not be an expression 175 00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:58.220 of our striving to be good on our own, 176 00:08:58.220 --> 00:09:00.760 but an expression of our faith. 177 00:09:00.760 --> 00:09:02.360 James 2.26 says, 178 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:05.760 "'For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, 179 00:09:05.760 --> 00:09:09.480 "'so also faith apart from works is dead.'" 180 00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:13.480 So let's give life to our faith by the good that we do.