Evening Sermon

April 6, 2008

Correcting and Refuting

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There is absolutely no question that Christmas morning was the greatest of all mornings when I was growing up. There was no day whose thrill and excitement c

One of the most important, and often difficult, jobs of the Elders of the church is the responsibility to watch over and protect the teaching of the church. The doctrine. Therefore, the qualifications for the office of Elder written by Paul to Titus includes this requirement, that an Elder must be a man "holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict."

Exhort and convict. Or perhaps more clearly, exhort and refute. Teach what is right and correct what is wrong! By refuting error.

So that is what Paul is doing here in our text this evening. Here is the heart and central focus of this whole book, the particular reason he is writing in the first place. There is an error, a heresy, in Colosse that must be corrected. And it is,

I. A DANGEROUS ERROR. Calling for a rather forceful warning. v.8

Let me begin with a focus upon the danger, even before we look more closely at the specific error he addresses. First, the danger.

Sadly, too many people think very lightly about doctrinal error, as if it is something of little consequence or importance. Certainly little danger, after all, for Christians have been debating and arguing about doctrine for centuries. With such widespread biblical illiteracy today, the whole idea of doctrinal purity and faithfulness is not a goal most people consider worthy to pursue. After all, doctrinal matters cause division, don't they, as if ignoring doctrinal matters will create a lasting peace.

Sadly, there are also people who are, in fact, divisive, using doctrinal disputes as a way to satisfy their love for arguments. But Paul has something to say about that, as well.

Titus 3:9 "But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless. 10 Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned."

But he also warns Titus, Titus 1:10 "For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain."

So by apostolic example, there must be a commitment within the church to protect and to preserve the doctrinal foundation of the church. Correct doctrine, or straight teaching, is defined by the word "orthodox." Ortho means straight or correct, just as an orthopedic doctor keeps your feet and bones straight. And orthodontist keeps your teeth straight. And the church of Jesus Christ must keep her doctrine straight, orthodox. That is why our denomination chose to use that word in our name.

And notice how Paul gives his warning to the Colossian church. He describes,

A. The danger of being cheated out of the truth. Again, just for emphasis, too many people today simply don't care. They don't care if they believe the truth or not, since the content of what you believe doesn't matter, so they say. Whether or not their doctrine has any claim to absolute truth is irrelevant, because truth itself is relative. People simply believe whatever they want, and from the autonomy of their own position, they declare that to be true for them. And whom am I to contradict them? What right does the church have to declare to them that what they believe is wrong?

That certainly isn't Paul's perspective on truth and error. He identifies the danger. "Beware...Lest anyone cheat you."

If you don't believe what is true, you are being cheated! Literally it means to carry you away as a captive. It means to take you captive, to make you a slave. That's what false doctrine does. That's what teachers of false doctrine do. They take you captive. And they cheat you out of the truth. They prohibit you from enjoying the possession of the true knowledge of God and his will.

They steal from you the pleasure of knowing and having the truth. They are holding you captive so that you cannot come to know orthodox doctrine and teaching. And all of that comes about with,

B. The danger of being deceived by the traditions of men. That's what false doctrine is. Rather than the truth, it is but the traditions of men. Over here is true, orthodox, biblical teaching. Over here are the traditions of men. And the danger is that you might not be able tell the difference!

That's why Paul writes this letter. To show us the difference. To show us where we might be deceived! That's a strong word. It simply isn't appropriate to say, "What you believe is true for you and what I believe is true for me." It simply isn't a good thing to say, "It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere." Because it is in that context that God's people are deceived, led astray. By "empty deceit." Vain deception, something useless and destitute of any value or advantage for you.

Notice in verse 8 the word "philosophy." Literally that word means "the love of wisdom." Sometimes, the context is very good, for it is a good thing to love the wisdom of God. Yet with this love of wisdom, with the love of knowledge, there is often the implication of skill and cleverness in communicating that wisdom. It might called the love of being smart. The love of being academically and intellectually superior.

Oh, how many people today, how many teachers in the church, have a love of philosophy that is empty and devoid of solid, biblical truth. Advanced wisdom. Higher wisdom, a tradition passed on by those who are initiated. That, of course, requires advanced educational degrees, and how the church today wants her teachers to be intellectual. Academically advanced, and able to interact with all the wise men of our day. Thus our seminaries are becoming little more than institutions of higher education dependent upon all the baggage that comes along with that whole academic context. We want accreditation, so seminary graduates can go to secular universities to get PhD's and gain that great academic qualification, as if that will help teach God's people the truth!

There is such a grave danger today, just as there was in Colosse, of being deceived by the traditions of men and being cheated out of the truth. And God is the author of truth. Jesus is the very embodiment of truth, the personal definition of truth. "I am the truth," was his claim.

So what, then, is Paul talking about in Colosse? What is,

II. THE ERROR DEFINED. This danger of being deceived and cheated out of the truth by the traditions of men is further defined as teaching which is, v.8b "...according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ."

This is admittedly a very difficult passage to interpret, since Paul isn't as clear in identifying the error as we might wish. But that, of course, is our problem. I think the key is in the contrast. The contrast between teaching according to Christ and teaching according to the "basic principles of the world."

Basic principles of the world. What does that mean? The root meaning of the Greek word is to line everything up in order, to arrange things like a row of soldiers marching together in perfect step. It came to mean the rudimentary principles of something, the basic fundamental principles. For example, the letters of the alphabet to language. The multiplication tables for mathematics. Or the chemical elements of the human body, oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and so forth.

So the "basic principles of the world," in contrast to Christ, as the most fundamental aspects of what it means to live and exist in terms of this world. The emphasis would fall upon the natural religion of this world, the elements of religion that are of the world and not of Christ. Carnal, earthly, outward, external, and physical elements of what passes for religion.

It is not hard to identify, then, those,

A. Elements of a worldly foundation. Regulations. Look at,

v.20 "Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations-- 21 "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle," 22 which all concern things which perish with the using--according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh."

Self-imposed religion. False humility, denying yourselves things that the Lord gives you the freedom to enjoy. It might have relation to dietary laws. The Old Covenant is gone, so now all foods are clean. There is nothing spiritual about being a vegetarian. Nothing in the true religion of Christ that means you should abstain from meat, or sugar. There are clear health principles involved in taking care of your body, but religion itself doesn't define the optimal body weight. Or the proper muscle tone. Or hair style. Etc. Etc.

Christianity is not and must never be a collection of rules that deal only with external things. You can deny the body certain foods, but the real problem is the heart. The inward part of you that wages war with your spirit. The flesh.

Regulations dealing with rudimentary, basic principles of earthly life do not change the heart. And they are not the definition of true Christianity. That's the error that Paul is addressing here. And it is not entirely different from the problem in Galatia.

Gal. 3:1 "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?"

The Old Covenant ceremonies are obviously at the forefront of Paul's mind, in both books. Here in Colossians he will immediately make reference to circumcision, noting that you have been circumcised in Christ! The outward act, the external sign has passed away.

v.11 "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ."

Don't let your faith, your religion or your religious service, become nothing other than external, physical, carnal and earthly attempts at discipline and self-control. Don't let the advancement of your Christian faith be defined by the traditions of men, "according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ."

And therein is the real error Paul addresses in this book. It is the error of,

B. A rejection of the preeminence of Jesus Christ. v.8 "...not according to Christ."

Calvin so wisely brings the discussion to the subject of worship, identifying the danger that our worship of God be defined and determined by things outward and physical. Human traditions. In the Institutes, he writes, "Many marvel why the Lord so sharply threatens to astound the people who worshiped him with the commands of men and declares that he is vainly worshiped by the precepts of men...Now, this is the reason why Paul so urgently warns us not to be deceived by the traditions of men, or by what he calls ...will worship, devised by men apart from God's teaching."

Commenting upon our text, he writes, "Whatever is hatched in man's brain is not in accordance with Christ, who has been appointed us by the Father as our sole Teacher, that he might retain us in the simplicity of his gospel. Now, that is corrupted by even a small portion of the leaven of human traditions. He intimates also, that all doctrines are foreign to Christ that make the worship of God, which we know to be spiritual, according to Christ's rule, to consist in the elements of the world, and also such as fetter the minds of men by such trifles and frivolities, while Christ calls us directly to himself."

Trifles and frivolities. That's an accurate description of much that happens in what is today called "worship." Trifles and frivolities. Things trivial and unimportant. And frivolous. Lacking any seriousness or gravity, but merely silly. Carefree. And yet that's the call of our day, casual. Lighthearted. Don't take this stuff so seriously.

But beloved, the honor of God is at stake, and God takes the glory of his name very seriously. God takes worship seriously. So should we.

That doesn't mean cold and joyless, but beloved, joyful doesn't mean carefree and frivolous!

And so it is, that the error is anything in thought or practice which replaces the preeminence of Christ in the lives of the people of God.

v.8 "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ."

But now, moving along, Paul takes up that role of refuting. He replaces the error with that which is true.

III. THE ERROR REFUTED. Here it is. We've actually seen it before in this book and made reference to this verse, but here is the doctrine regarding Christ which Paul has declared in the context of correcting what is wrong at the church of Colosse. v.9

The point is plainly made and easily understood.

A. Jesus is fully and completely God in the flesh. We touched upon that idea in,

Col. 1:15 "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist."

Col. 1:19 "For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell."

Most explicitly here, we read that in Christ, in the bodily existence of Jesus Christ, in his incarnation and as he walked upon the earth as a man, the divine nature dwells. And not just part of a divine nature, or the man Jesus as being partly divine, but the fullness. The fullness of the godhead. The fullness of deity. The fullness of divinity, the fullness of god-ness. The complete fullness of what makes God God is found in Jesus, and Jesus in the flesh. In bodily form. All of his fullness, not just some of it, as if that were possible!

So Jesus has a full and complete humanity, the fullness of man-ness. And in that man-ness, with that man-ness, perfectly and inseparably connected to that man-ness, is his god-ness. As a man, he is fully and completely God.

This is what the Apostle John writes,

John 1:14 "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

Jesus is God incarnate, in the flesh. Not merely that he simply had the appearance of a man, but he was fully man. It merely a doctrine or an idea about Jesus, true only in the sense of a legend or a myth, but God in the flesh appeared on earth in history. The incarnation was a true and recordable moment of human history. It is not a story, but the reality of an actual life.

And the importance of that is that it was in the flesh, the godhead joined to humanity, that the cursed penalty for your sins was paid. Not by a religious idea or a religious legend, but in the person of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man.

The importance of that is even more clearly specified by Paul in what follows in verse 10, namely that,

B. The fullness of our identity is in our union with Jesus. So this is not just some theoretical discussion of religious theory. This is life and death! This is not some empty discussion about unimportant doctrine. This is who you are. "You are complete in him."

The Greek word refers to something that fully achieves its purpose, accomplishes its goal. Literally, filled to the fullness, filled to the brim, overflowing!

Paul writes very similarly in, Eph. 3:17 "...that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

And, Eph. 4:13 "...till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

We certainly live in a day and age in which the whole idea of personal identity is close at hand. People often struggle with identity issues. Whom am I? What is my purpose in life? Why am I here? What can I do with my life?

And too often we forget what is most important and most obvious in the Bible. Or we are deceived by disastrous errors. The solution to your identity problem is not some vacuous or superficial encouragement to build your self-esteem. The struggle with insecurity and self-image is not found in the elemental principles of this world. The solution is not for the preacher to tell you to feel to good about yourself. The answer is here.

Stop looking at yourself altogether. "You are complete in Him." You are fulfilled in Christ. You find your fulfillment in the service and worship of Jesus Christ. So why would you seek elsewhere what you already have in Him!

Beloved, that's it! You are filled full in him. You are what you have been created and designed by God to be when you live in a vital union with Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself said it this way,

John 15:3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."

"Abide in Me," Jesus says. "Live in a vital union with me, joined to me," says Jesus. That is where life receives its only soul-satisfying meaning and purpose. Only when you live, day in and day out, proving and demonstrating with your life the reality of what we read in,

Col. 1:17 "And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist...,that in all things He may have the preeminence."

With one final encouragement. One final refutation of the dangerous error about a religion that is based upon rudimentary principles of this world. One final answer to those who disastrously seek for meaning and significance in life according to the tradition of men. And the answer is this, that,

C. The fullness of authority rests in Jesus. If you are a Christian, you are united to Jesus. And he "is the head of all principality and power."

How's that for a self-image. "I'm with him..." That's who you are. And he's the head. He's is above all other authorities. He is seated at the right hand of his father in heaven.

And guess you? You are seated with him! You see, our religion, our faith, is essentially a matter of spiritual truth, not physical truth. What matters is not the measures of this world, but the spiritual realities of heaven. And this is that reality, that if you are a Christian, you have been raised with Christ!

Paul writes of the power by which God raised Jesus from the dead in Ephesians 1. He writes of,

Eph. 1:19 "...the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."

Then Paul continues, Eph. 2:4 "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

So if you are in Christ, if you are united to Christ by your faith, if you are a Christian, then the spiritual reality is that you are already seated with Christ in heaven, raised up with Christ in his resurrection and ascension.

Surely, that will become a physical reality at the end of the age when Jesus returns, but the glory of the gospel is that it is already a present reality. In spirit, and in truth, you are already there.

And all of that is so because we know that truth, that, v.9 "...in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."

So don't ever be cheated out of the truth. Don't ever be deceived by the traditions of men.

Col. 3:1 "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."

We'll study those exhortations in the weeks to come, but in this book of Colossians, it is the doctrinal truth of this spiritual reality that is the basis for all the ethical and moral applications that follow.

v.9 "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form."

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