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Calvary Community Church

Sermon

Warnings

Series
Colossians
Scripture
Colossians 2:16-19

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In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij examines Colossians 2:16-19 and the two warnings Paul gives Christians against false teachers demanding legalism, ascetism, or cult-like submission.

1. Sever yourself from any deformed pattern of Christian living and practice (vv. 16-17)
2. Sever yourself from those who have a diminished view of Christ (vv. 18-19)

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

We are warned in Colossians 2:16-19 against two dangerous errors that false teachers use to rob believers of what they already possess in Christ. The penalty for our sins has been placed on Christ, and his perfect righteousness has been credited to us — yet the enemy works through false teaching to make us doubt the sufficiency of that finished work.

Key Lessons:

  1. The Old Testament dietary laws, festivals, and Sabbaths were mere shadows pointing to Christ, who is their substance and fulfillment — we are not obligated to keep them.
  2. False teachers use legalism, self-abasement, angel worship, and claims of secret visions to rob believers of the prize of full, free life in union with Christ.
  3. Any religious system that diminishes Christ — his person, his completed work, or his sole role as mediator — has the fingerprints of Satan on it, regardless of how wise or humble it appears.
  4. True spiritual growth comes not from fasting rituals, rule-keeping, or secret knowledge, but from holding fast to Christ as the head and being nourished together as his body.

Application: We are called to stand firm against anyone who would judge us by food, holy days, or man-made regulations, and to reject any teaching that adds to or takes from the all-sufficient work of Christ. We must keep our discernment sharp, hold fast to Christ as head, and find our growth through the gathered body of believers in the word of God.

Discussion Questions:

  1. In what ways do modern religious movements still impose ‘shadows’ — rules, rituals, or special days — as if Christ’s work were not enough?
  2. How can you recognize false humility or self-abasement in today’s spiritual landscape, and what does true humility look like according to Scripture?
  3. What does it mean practically for you to ‘hold fast to the head,’ and how does your participation in the gathered church body support your spiritual growth?

Scripture Focus: Colossians 2:16-19 — the two warnings against legalism and a diminished view of Christ. Supporting passages include Hebrews 8:5 (the tabernacle as shadow), Acts 10:9-16 (all foods declared clean), 1 Timothy 2:5 (one mediator), and John 8:12 (Christ as the light of the world).

Outline

Introduction

Foreign, this morning, turn to Colossians 2.

Then be ready to go to the Old Testament in Numbers. We’re going to be looking at a few passages there. This morning we’ll be looking at Colossians 2:16-19.

In this passage we’ll see the warnings that are given to us as believers, because we are in Christ. Let’s pray.

Lord, this morning as we approach your word, we want to do so with reverence, because we are coming before the word of the king whom we serve and in whose kingdom we are subjects. We are so because of Christ, who is the king of kings and Lord of lords.

Lord, give us listening ears and a receptive heart, that we would understand the word of God. And Lord, let it move our will so we do it. I pray we would do it in a way that is filled with thankfulness and joy and honors you.

Give us discernment every day to know the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, your way and every other way. I pray in Christ’s name, amen.

Our Victory and the Enemy’s Strategy

This morning, Colossians 2. I want you to think about this: the penalty for our sins was accounted to him, Christ’s perfect righteousness credited to us. That means we are vindicated, that we are on the victory side.

Therefore, when a Christian is being persecuted for their faith in Christ alone, or for their obedience in doing what is right, or for their refusal to participate in the old sins that they used to commit and the sins of others in society, we can find comfort and contentment in the middle of those troubles and temptations. We can reflect thoughtfully on the ultimate vindication and victory that we have in the finished work of Christ.

Jesus’ sacrifice was so perfect, so final, and so sufficient—that is, complete—that it gave to all who believe in Christ a permanent justification and a continuous position before God that will be enjoyed now and forever.

“Jesus’ sacrifice was so perfect, so final, and so sufficient that it gave to all who believe a permanent justification and a continuous position before God.”

But remember, we have an enemy who through false teaching and false teachers desires to confuse Christians and to get them to think that somehow the cross of Christ was not enough or sufficient. That there are things we need to do in order to help God save us or help God keep us saved.

In other words, the enemy wants to steal what you already have. He can’t get you anymore, he can’t make you his possession anymore, but he can steal what you have. The demons used the certificate of indebtedness, as mentioned last week, against us to keep us accused in the state of guilt and enslaved to his decrees, to his commandments, and to obey his regulations, not God’s.

The implications of our completeness in Christ come with warnings. Every Christian should want to inquire as to what the Christian life is. What am I to expect as a believer?

The true Christian life is a life that is hidden with Christ and God, yet it is a life lived out on this earth with many dangers. Scripture now gives us instruction concerning warnings about doctrinal and practical errors of false teachers.

If a man creates a religion, any man creates a religion, it will be man-centered. It will turn out to have no saving or sanctifying value. It will lead to worship of the creature and not the Creator. It will not lead to a worship and a relationship with the true and living God.

“If a man creates a religion, it will be man-centered, with no saving or sanctifying value, and will lead to worship of the creature and not the Creator.”

The Two Warnings Overview

There are two warnings given to the church about the wrong way concerning Christian doctrine and life. Each of these warnings is like a stop sign at a very busy intersection, and it warns us to stop and to look both ways and proceed with caution.

Here’s the first warning, Colossians 2:16-17. Let me read that first. It says, “Therefore no one is to act as a judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow of that which is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

Warning 1: Do Not Let Anyone Judge You

The first warning is in order to sever yourself from any deformed patterns of Christian living. We’re going to find that those patterns are legalism, pride, and the things that go along with those things.

But first of all, I want you to notice something. Remember in the book of Colossians, Paul is writing and identifying one particular Christian—quasi-Christian, claiming to be a Christian, but a false teacher. He’s a leader, and he says in verse 16, notice here’s the distinguishing mark of this certain false teacher.

The False Teacher as Judge

It says, therefore no one is to act as your judge. Now if the writer is focusing on this prominent leader who has incredible ability to teach and gather people around him to listen, the leader of this emerging faction sets himself up as a judge. A person who would take others to task by passing personal judgment on another person’s actions, and usually not to encourage them but to criticize them and to find fault in their life.

Now this sounds like a person who wanted to have control over those in his religious movement. Today we would refer to this kind of person as a cult leader.

And how are Christians to respond to this domineering, imposing leader? Well, verse 16 gives us the first command out of the two, and it says, “Therefore let no one, let no one, or no one is to act as your judge.”

So the strength of keeping this command is the knowledge that you and I have of the complete salvation we have in Jesus Christ. That’s what gives us the strength, that’s the foundation. But he wants to rob that from us.

So if what you believe is based on biblical doctrine from the word of God, then there is nothing to fear from those who desire to impose judgment on you. You have the confidence in Christ’s finished work on your behalf, and you have the Holy Spirit of God and the word of God, which will give us all discernment.

“If what you believe is based on biblical doctrine, there is nothing to fear from those who desire to impose judgment on you.”

What the Christian Life Actually Looks Like

When the question comes up as to how the Christian life is supposed to look, we Christians have a clear idea from the word of God. We have already learned in Colossians how the Christian walk is supposed to look and how we are to proceed.

If you look back at chapter one of Colossians, look at verses 10 and 11. Verse 10 of chapter 1 already told us this: “So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

Verse 11 says, “Strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.” And we do that joyously. Here is really what the Christian life is about.

I walk every day in a way that I learn how to please God, but it’s not by my own strength and your own strength. It’s by God’s strength that we do it. Then we become steadfast in what we believe, and we become patient in the process of God sanctifying us every single day. And we do that with the attitude of joy.

“We walk every day learning to please God — not by our own strength but by God’s strength — with steadfastness, patience, and joy.”

That’s what the Christian life produces. That’s what the spirit of God produces in our life. In the strength that God gives, we purpose in our hearts that we will not let anyone judge us.

Legalism: Dietary Rules and Holy Days

Nonetheless, this imposing judge has his own idea of how life and the life of a believer is to look and what they are to do. Now we look at verse 16 again. These are the features of the false teacher’s doctrine.

Notice what it says in verse 16. “Therefore let no one, no one is to act as your judge in regard to what? To food or drink, or in respect to a festival, a new moon, and a Sabbath.” Let’s unpack that a little bit this morning.

If you notice here, this is the legalism imposed upon believers by these false teachers using dietary rules and eating and not eating food, and keeping and not keeping certain holy days. Now this always looks like wisdom, this always looks like, yeah, this is the way it ought to be, but it is not the way it ought to be. In fact, that’s what this passage is about.

Because this teacher is imposing legalistic dietary regulations on the people that are listening to him. In other words, if you’re going to be, quote unquote, a believer, then you have to keep these food regulations, you have to do that.

“This legalism always looks like wisdom, but it is not the way it ought to be.”

So you can see very quickly the Jewish element in this false teacher’s doctrine, in which rules of piety and purity serve to set the Israelite diet apart wherever the Jew may live. Some animals, remember, were clean so they could be eaten, and others were unclean, in which they were restricted from eating. Like animals which part the hoof and chewed the cud, and then various kinds of birds and fish and insects, things they could eat, things they couldn’t eat.

Old Testament Dietary Laws in Context

Now just for some reference, let’s look very quickly back to Leviticus 11, just a few verses, verses 1 through 4. Because you find there, from this passage and in Deuteronomy, that God gave to Israel certain things that they could eat and they shouldn’t eat, and it set them apart from the nations.

Leviticus 11:1 says, “The Lord spoke again to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, these are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth. Whether whatever divides a hoof and making split hoofs, chews the cud, among the animals that you may eat.’”

Nevertheless, you are not to eat these among those which chew a cud or among those which divide the hoof. The camel, for though it chews the cud, it does not divide the hoof, and then it says it is unclean to you.

So here it is: the clean and unclean dietary regulations. The regulations also prohibited any food which was or has been contaminated by some contact with other cooking foods or water that was defiled by unclean carcasses, something that died in the water.

All these regulations were given to Israel to make them different and distinct from all the rest of the nations around them. Because they would be God’s people, and they were recognized as God’s people by what they ate and what they didn’t eat, and these other nations didn’t have those regulations.

So this was a distinctive mark for Israel.

“God’s people were recognized by what they ate and what they didn’t eat — a distinctive mark for Israel.”

Festivals, New Moons, and the Sabbath

But I want you to notice back in Colossians that not only did this false teacher impose these dietary regulations on people, but legalistic rituals he imposed upon them. Like it says in Colossians 2:16, or in respect to a festival.

Now a festival was an annual festival like Passover or Pentecost, and then a new moon was a monthly offering or a festival that was regulated by the lunar calendar, and then a Sabbath day, which was a weekly holiday, right? The Sabbath they were to keep every week.

Again, if you’re still in Numbers, you can look to Numbers 10:10, because it gives us a sense of what Israel was supposed to do to make themselves different than the other nations. And it says in Numbers 10:10, “Also in the day of your gladness and in your appointed feast and on the first day of your months, you shall blow the trumpet over your burnt offerings, over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, and they shall be a reminder of you before your God. I am the Lord your God.”

And then other passages say the same thing, and it talks about doing something at the beginning of the month. And they were to offer drink offerings and burnt offerings each month throughout the year, like offering one male goat for a sin offering to the Lord, that shall be also offered with a drink offering in addition to a burnt offering.

So the Israelites had a lot of things they were given by God to do, to show themselves to be the covenant, Old Testament covenant people of God. So many things were required monthly, which led up to annual sacrifices and feasts. But they also had a weekly holiday, and that was the Sabbath, every single Saturday they were to rest.

Actually, the Jews had seven yearly feast sabbaths as well as a weekly six-day Sabbath of rest. However, none of these has been carried over and given to the church. None of them have.

“None of the Jewish feasts, sabbaths, or their day of rest has been carried over and given to the church.”

The saints in Christ are not under obligation to keep the Jewish feasts, sabbaths, or their day of rest of the weekly Sabbath. Now if we think about that, we’d also have to say, if those are under the shadow of truth who did not, these people did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit as believers do today. If they were commanded to keep one day as a special day for the Lord, how much less should we, how much less should we, the saints in this age, in the church age, keep the Lord’s day, the first day of the week, as a day of worship?

The Lord’s Day: The Christian Day of Worship

The Sabbath was not changed; it just was not given to the church. Sunday is the first day of the week, and it pictured a new age dawning in Christ after his death, burial, and resurrection. On the first day of the week, if we go through scripture, we find that Christ rose from the dead, and it became the Christian’s most important remembrance for everyone who was in Christ.

On the first day of the week, as we go through the gospels, we find Christ met with his disciples twice for the breaking of bread after his resurrection. That became an important thing for believers to do.

On the first day of the week, it was the Holy Spirit that came to the earth to indwell believers on the day of Pentecost. That was the first day of the week.

The disciples throughout the epistles and the book of Acts met on the first day of the week for preaching, for communion, for gathering together to fellowship and to worship, and for gathering offerings for the Lord’s work to be done in different regions.

With the example of Christ, the Spirit, and the apostles, this makes the first day of the week—the day of the Lord—the Christian day of worship, not Saturday.

“With the example of Christ, the Spirit, and the apostles, the first day of the week is the Christian day of worship.”

What others have said about food and dietary regulations after the resurrection and ascension of Christ becomes very clear in scripture. In fact, the apostle Paul wrote in Romans: “Therefore do not let what is in you a good thing be spoken evil of, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

All Foods Declared Clean

And then Jesus himself declared in Mark 7:19, when he was having this dialogue with the leaders of Israel about putting stuff into your body and what was unclean, the food or the heart. Jesus was focusing on the heart, and he said to them there, because it does not go into the heart but into the stomach and is eliminated, thus he declared all foods clean.

Jesus uses his authority right there as the resurrected Lord, and he says, listen, all these dietary regulations are null and void, all food is clean.

And then take your Bibles and turn to Acts 10, because this is where God enforced, and the apostle Peter, that all foods are clean. Now remember, the apostle Peter was a staunch disciple of the old regulations of keeping the food regulations, and God had to actually bring a vision to him three times before he would comply.

And I want you to notice in Acts 10:9-16. It says, on the next day as they were on their way in approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat, but while they were making preparations he fell into a trance.

And he saw the sky open and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground. And there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and creeping, crawling creatures of the earth, birds of the air. And a voice came to him, get up, Peter, kill and eat.

And what does Peter respond? In verse 14, Peter says, by no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.

But then notice in verse 15, again the voice came to him, actually three times it came to him. The voice came to him a second time, what God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.

Now God had to do this three times before Peter could be freed up from the dietary regulations, because he was no longer just part of Israel, he was now a new believer in Jesus Christ, and those regulations are null and void in Christ, because a new thing had come.

“Peter was no longer just part of Israel — he was now a new believer in Jesus Christ, and those dietary regulations are null and void in Christ.”

Now what is very interesting is, after the resurrection, these imposed dietary restrictions were considered by the apostle Paul as demonic. Well, to back that up, 1 Timothy 4:1-5 gives us the background for that.

If you like to turn there, but if not, listen what it says. It says in 1 Timothy 4:1, but the spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.

In verse 2, by means of the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. And notice verse 3, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.

For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude, for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

That’s pretty clear. If anybody is going to impose any dietary or festival regulations upon you, you just say, sorry, that doesn’t apply to me, that was taken care of already by Christ.

These false teachers judged his followers by their observance of these calendar and dietary regulations. However, Christians are not obligated to observe any calendar or any dietary observances.

In fact, even the Lord’s day is not a command, it’s a willful response with gratitude to the Lord. That I want to meet, I want to worship the Lord, I want to hear the word of God, I want to give you praise. See, it’s a willful desire to want to do it, God’s not dragging anybody if they don’t want to come.

Don’t let anyone take you to task. No keeping of laws and rules will earn salvation or cause you to grow spiritually, nothing. We don’t have to abstain from any food, we don’t have to keep holy days, we are free.

These have no spiritual or saving significance at all. Christians cannot grow measured by keeping or accomplishing certain things and keeping and not keeping man-made rules and regulations. These are done away with.

The Shadow and the Substance

These calendar festivals and dietary observances do have a purpose. They were a dim outline, a mere shadow of the reality of things in which they pointed to something that is going to come in the future.

Now take your Bibles and turn back to Colossians 2. Notice in verse 17, because the Bible explains this. What reality was intended by all these festivals and dietary observances?

Verse 17 says, “Things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” There’s a lot right there in that passage.

The shadow, the reflection, the silhouette of something of Old Testament teaching. It’s like a shade caused by the inception of light, or an image cast by an object and representing a form of that object. And prophetically, of the relationship of type and anti-type, the type that happens in the Old Testament and the anti-type that is a foreshadowing of the reality that will take place.

A dim outline—these rules and regulations were a dim outline or a sketch of an object in contrast to the object itself. The passage we read this morning talked about Moses and the pattern of the tabernacle and the things of the priesthood that were taking place. Moses was told by God, “Listen, do what I told you and make this tabernacle according to this pattern that was seen in heaven.”

But the tabernacle would just be a ghostly copy of not only the tabernacle itself but the earthly priesthood. Hebrews 8:5 says, “Who served the copy and the shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle. For he said, ‘See, that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain.’”

In other words, the earthly priesthood, because it was only a sketch plan representing the real copy of that which was in heaven, was an inadequate shadow of the real priesthood. These could never lead people to the reality of God’s heavenly sanctuary or into the presence of God.

Only the real priest could do that. All these things were pointing to the real priest, and the real priest was Jesus Christ, who was not after the order of Aaron the priesthood, but after the order of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek is a very interesting character in scripture. He sounded very much like God himself when you read those things in Hebrews. In other words, if this could not provide entryway into the heavenly sanctuary and to the complete forgiveness of sins so a person could have access to the presence of God, well, who can?

Surely Jesus can. It is he who leads us right into the presence of God, and Jesus is the reality of the shadow and the types of the Old Testament sacrifices and the Old Testament dietary laws and the Old Testament festival days. He is the one who is the substance of those things.

“Jesus is the reality of the shadow — the substance of Old Testament sacrifices, dietary laws, and festival days.”

Jesus is the high priest who offers himself as a sacrifice for sinners. The priest had to offer a sacrifice for his own sin first, and then the sins of the people. Jesus has no sin, so he offers himself for the people, which makes him completely different than any other priest that has gone before him.

Christ Fulfills Every Shadow

And all that has gone before Christ came were mere shadowy indicators of what is to come—yearly and monthly and weekly festivals, dietary observances, and sacrifices.

Christians do not need anyone to set them straight on these matters, for they should know that the old system of Mosaic worship is now ended in Christ. All Jewish feasts and feast days were but a shadow of the person and work of the Savior. Until he came, the shadows were empty, and now that he has come, they are fulfilled by Christ.

In fact, this is what it says in Hebrews 10: “The law was only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things.” Who becomes the form and substance of things? Jesus Christ himself.

The Mosaic law was a mere shadow, and thus fleeting, with no value to save. It pointed all to Christ. That’s what the law did, right? It convicted us of sins and pointed us to the one who could save us, Jesus Christ.

Think of it like this. If you are standing next to a wall and there is a source of light behind you, your body is going to cast your shadow on the wall. But the shadow is not really you; it is only a reflection of you on the wall.

All these things—these types and shadows and sacrifices and regulations of the Old Testament—were all a shadow pointing on the wall. But remember, once the light source is gone or the light source moves to the other side, there’s no longer a shadow.

If you go back and look at Colossians 2:17, notice what it says: “Things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

A shadow only exists when light is cast upon something that actually has mass and has substance. Once the light moves from behind the reality to the other side, the shadow disappears.

What do we have? We have Christ coming into the world as the light of revelation. The light has shifted to the other side of the law, making regulations pointless. Jesus is the reality and Jesus is the light.

“The light has shifted to the other side of the law, making regulations pointless. Jesus is the reality and Jesus is the light.”

We come to the gospels and what do we see? Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Where there is a shadow there is also reality. The Old Testament mode of Jewish worship was a picture of the Son of God, who would be the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.

In Christ, everything is fulfilled. Before Christ came, godly men waited by faith. Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that they might receive the adoption as sons.”

They could no longer come into the family of God by the Old Testament regulations and sacrifices and feast days and dietary laws, but only through Christ. The whole book of Hebrews is about this: leave Judaism and leave everything behind and go follow Christ.

Whatever religious system you came from, where I came from, we need to leave it all behind and turn from that and follow Christ, and not drag all this baggage into our new Christian life.

Christ is the real thing. In other words, he is the substance. The substance belongs to Christ. The Passover points to Calvary, Christ’s death on the cross. The feast of first fruits points to Christ’s resurrection. The feast of trumpets points to Christ’s rapture and second coming.

The Sabbath, which is Saturday, is a blessed holy day. Israel had a shadow day in that Sabbath, yet it pointed forward to the substance, which was Messiah, which they have rejected. Now coming to know the Lord individually, but someday in the land they will come to see the Messiah as who he is, and no longer look at the shadow but look at the reality.

We look at the burnt offering—it points to Christ’s willing offering of himself. The meal offering points to Christ’s purity and sinlessness. The peace offering points to Christ’s accomplishment on the cross.

The sin offering points to Christ dealing with sin and its guilt. The trespass offering points to Christ dealing with sin’s injury upon humanity. Jesus has fulfilled everything, and he is our spiritual food and he is our light.

“Jesus has fulfilled everything. He is our spiritual food and he is our light.”

The first warning is pretty clear: don’t let anybody judge you. Why? Because of what scripture teaches, we’re warned by that.

Warning 2: Do Not Let Anyone Defraud You of Your Prize

But there is a second warning, back to Colossians 2. The second warning is to sever yourself from those who have a diminished view of Christ, in verses 18 and 19.

Here’s the second command in scripture in our text, and it says, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize.” I don’t know about you, but if we have a prize, don’t let anybody take it away from you.

The term “keep defrauding” is an interesting term that comes from a split Greek word. The first part, kata, means against, and the second part means to be an umpire of the games. When you put them together, it meant to decide against someone as an umpire might do, with the result that they have robbed someone of the prize for which they were competing.

A strike comes over the plate and you’re at bat, or a ball comes over the plate and you’re right there, and the umpire calls it a strike. If you turn around and argue with the umpire, you’re going to get thrown out of the game, right?

So here, this false teacher again is deciding like an umpire in a game. For what reason? To rob someone of the prize that they were competing for, or depriving or cheating someone of their spiritual reward.

What’s the prize? The prize that the false teacher was trying to rob from the Colossians and us—the fullness of life in union with the incomparable Christ. That’s what he’s trying to rob.

“The prize the false teacher tried to rob from the Colossians: the fullness of life in union with the incomparable Christ.”

If Christians give in, they’re back to square one. The command is this: let no one act as your umpire against you, to get you to deny your claim to be a genuine believer. Don’t let anybody do that to you.

If the truth of scripture stands, you don’t have to let anybody do that to you. Now, saying that and keeping that command also means discerning how the false teachers are going to carry out their umpire judgment upon believers or against believers.

Self-Abasement and False Humility

Well, what’s the first thing he does? Look at verse 18. The first thing is what he does. It says, by delighting in self-mortification.

In other words, let no one keep defrauding you of your prize, how? By delighting in self-abasement. If you think of this for a moment, remember we’re supposed to do things out of joy. This is an enforced delighting, like you will delight in this or else.

So often in Jewish Christian writing, the term self-abasement is used in connection with fasting, saying that the ascetic practice is an entrance into the heavenly realm. You gain something when you are fasting, because fasting prepares you for heavenly visions. It brings you into a spiritual realm that you can only get to by obeying what the teacher says.

Not only about the regulations that he just is imposing upon the believers, but now abusing or keeping down your flesh. Now I don’t know about you, but fasting is a good thing and it is a Christian thing to do, but in this sense here it is not talking about a Christian thing to do. This is talking about fasting so you look good, and now you prepare yourselves for this higher knowledge that this teacher says that they have.

So their profession of humility was cloaked in this excessive pride, which seemed to be a false humility that brought attention to men, not to God. It’s probably when people keep the feast and the regulations of the false teachers, they’re looked upon as humble and obedient, right? They give an appearance of wisdom and piety.

Wow, look how those holy people practice their faith so methodically. Even as the Muslim believers put out their carpet every day and pray three times a day, they give an appearance of being right with God and being pleasing to God. But we all know from scripture that that’s not going to bring them anything spiritually profitable at all. It actually condemns them.

So the false teachers were imposing fasting and total abstinence on the body as a necessary factor in discovering the insights of the false teachers, especially the things that they were peddling.

Now if you look at Colossians 2:23, it says, “These are matters which have to be sure an appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value against fleshly indulgences.”

True humility is viewing ourselves as we really are from God’s perspective. And who are we? We’re sinners saved by God’s grace, that’s who we are. And so once we know that, we act accordingly, and how do we do that? Because the scripture tells us how to do that.

“True humility is viewing ourselves as we really are from God’s perspective — sinners saved by God’s grace.”

So they were insisting upon their followers to delight in self-mortification. I wonder how that went. You read of people like Martin Luther and some of the saints of the past, before he became a believer. They used to treat their body horrible, sleep at night with no blankets and sometimes on beds of nails, because they thought in doing that they were putting down the flesh and exalting God and getting into a place where they get closer to God. But it has no profit at all.

And people are still doing it today. I mean, people today on holidays where we celebrate crucifixion actually get crucified, and they think that somehow pleasing God and getting close to God and how holy they are when they do that. What that is, it’s pride. That’s thinking you’re smarter than God, and that these practices are going to be beneficial for your spiritual growth, and they are not.

Angel Worship and False Mediation

But I want you to notice something else that leads into that. Verse 18 of that chapter—they not only insist that followers delight in self-mortification, but in verse 18, they impose angel worship on the people.

These false teachers viewed God as so lofty and removed from human affairs that he could only be approached and addressed through angelic mediators. The reason is because they viewed the body as evil, that it couldn’t have any relationship with God, could have no contact with the supremely spiritual unless they started with the less spiritual beings, as angels.

So you have to go through angels to get to God. Well, what’s that called? It’s called idolatry—worship of angels. If you worship anything but God, it is idolatry.

Exodus 20:3-5 says, “You shall have no other gods before me, and you shall not make for yourselves an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or in earth beneath or in the water underneath the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them.”

So now they lead the people into idolatry, but the people don’t think they’re engaged in idolatry. They think they’re led into a deeper realm of spiritual understanding and getting closer to God, which they are not.

Then you come through scripture, like 1 Timothy 2:5. There’s only one mediator between man and God. Doesn’t that say, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and man, the man Christ Jesus”?

So again, when scripture emphasizes these things, it’s because it’s for our good to know there is no other way, there’s no other mediator between me and God except Christ. That means they couldn’t even pray directly to God.

Some people even believe today that you have to pray to saints or Mary before you can get to Jesus. Well, that’s simply not true. You don’t need saints or Mary; you need Jesus, right?

1 Timothy 2:5: “There is one God and one mediator also between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. — 1 Timothy 2:5”

See, it will fundamentally deny people, rob people of the prize that they have of being freed up in truth. We don’t need any of those things; we don’t have to go back to any of those things.

Not only that, if you look in scripture, true angels refuse worship. Revelation 22 says there, “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things, and when I heard and saw, I fell down and worshiped at the feet of the angel who showed me these things.”

What did the angel say? Verse 9 says, “He said to them, ‘Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren the prophets, of those who heed the words of this book.’ And then he said, ‘Worship God.’” That’s how he ends it, Revelation 22:8-9.

So even true angels worship and will point you to Jesus. That means if angelic intermediaries were working in this, I think you can conclude something: Satan has his fingerprints all over religious systems, all over it. But he never will come out and say that, no.

Visions, Pride, and Secret Knowledge

But another thing, back to Colossians 2:18. The second part of that verse says this: not only did he insist the followers delight in self-mortification, not only did he impose on them angel worship because he had an incorrect view of God, but he also penetrated into those things which he has not seen.

Look at verse 18: “Taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.” In other words, through these aesthetic experiences, seeing visions, these experiences dominated his talks with others, and he believed it also authenticated his message, that he was right and everybody else was wrong.

These spiritual and supernatural experiences made him think high thoughts of himself, like, “I must be something special because I’m receiving these visions, and God’s not giving it to everyone else but it’s giving it to me.”

“These supernatural experiences made him think high thoughts of himself — ‘I must be something special because I’m receiving these visions.’”

Brethren, a lot of stuff is going on today where people are seeing visions, saying they were transported to heaven and writing books and making a lot of money. Do those things? That’s all a bunch of bunk. It means nothing. It’s nothing but pride, that’s all it is.

And because he had these special visions of secret things which were not open to the eyes of ordinary people, Satan has his fingerprints all over religious movements, because the nature of his perversions are seen.

Colossians already said it: chapter 2, verse 4, enticing words; chapter 2, verse 8, human philosophy and traditions of men; chapter 2, verses 16 and 17, legalism; and then chapter 2, verse 20, asceticism.

The two commands are not to listen to people who say to you, “If you don’t do these things you can’t be saved and grow in the Lord.” Don’t listen to them. Instead, know what you believe, that is based on scripture, and then nobody has to manipulate you, nobody has to try to convince you that you should be doing something you should not be doing.

Because in your mind and in this text and in scripture, Christ has done it all. He’s fulfilled everything. What I am required to do is follow him and love him with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength, and to do his will. That’s what we are required to do, and God gives us the strength to do that.

These false teachers say one must obtain secret knowledge in order to be saved and or perfected, and this knowledge was not available to everyone. Well, didn’t we just get done reading in the chapter before this, the beginning of this chapter, that Christ’s secret, that God’s secret is who Christ is, and he has been revealed to all, and we’re to preach the gospel to everyone we go, we’re to teach the word of God to everyone?

No one is excluded. There’s no such thing as obtaining a place where you have secret knowledge and nobody else has. No, we all have the word of God. We can all study the word of God, right?

The answer to these satanic perversions is that Christians are in the know because they know Christ. They have the Holy Spirit of God and they have the word of God. Again, chapter 2 tells us that we know who Jesus is, we know what Jesus has done for us, we know who we are in Christ, we know what to do for him, the instructions are clear.

That is what he does to keep people and rob them of their prize. But also, this is what he doesn’t do, and maybe this gives us more, substantiates more fully who’s behind him.

Not Holding Fast to the Head

Notice what it says in verse 19, the last part of the verse, kind of pulling back the curtain to see who’s pulling the puppet strings. Look what it says: this false teaching in verse 19 is not holding fast to the head, not holding fast to the head.

They’re not holding according to Christ. In other words, he and those who follow such teaching fail to hold fast to the head of the body, which is Jesus Christ. They fail to follow Christ and hold his words as the ultimate authority. They don’t give Christ his rightful place.

That’s why, anytime you look at any kind of cult, always look first at the doctrine of Christ. What do they say about Jesus? Anything aberrant about Jesus, run as fast as you can from that place, because it will lead you to bondage.

False teachers are under Christ’s feet as an enemy. Like it says in Ephesians, “He has put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

In verse 19, the last part of the verse, he gives this: these false teachers are not part of Christ’s body. That means they’re not part of the church. That means they have no connection to the head, which is Jesus.

If you have no connection to the head who is Jesus, you have no life. If you have no life, you have no communication with Jesus Christ. If you have no communication with Jesus Christ, you have no salvation, no matter how much you were deceived to think you do have it. You have none of it.

“Anytime you look at any kind of cult, always look first at the doctrine of Christ. Anything aberrant about Jesus — run as fast as you can.”

Growth Comes from Christ Through His Body

And then notice what he says in verse 19. He gives really the necessity for Christians to live in an active Christian community, for service to Christ and maturity as their goal.

Notice what it says. It says, “From whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with the growth which is from God.”

So in other words, the body of Christ, the church, derives its unity and its growth as we all together gather from Christ himself. That believers are banded together, ligaments and joints—what are they? Ligaments really hold joints together, don’t they, to hold bones together. When you blow a ligament out, you really feel it. It holds it together, it bonds it together, it binds it together. And that’s what the church does.

The gathered assembly is God’s means by which we gather together to hear the word of God, so we are bound together with each other. We feed each other as we fellowship with each other.

God’s growth does not come from a denial of certain foods or keeping festivals or fasting for spiritual benefit. The growth comes from God himself. He grows us with a growth which is from God.

“Growth does not come from a denial of certain foods or keeping festivals or fasting for spiritual benefit. The growth comes from God himself.”

All this comes from the Lord to us. We don’t need any of these other things. That’s why religions are so incredibly captivating and destructive—to rob people of what is true. Satan is behind religious systems. That’s what he’s behind, that’s where he works the best and the most.

Conclusion: Stand Firm in Christ

If God delivered you from those systems, one of those systems, thank the Lord for him and don’t look back. Keep going forward, but keep your discernment and your radar up.

When you hear things coming down the pike about how a Christian should look this way, dress this way, and do these ten things—and if you do those ten things, you’re going to look spiritual and be part of the body—throw it all out. It means nothing.

If you’re in Christ, you will be sanctified. You will grow in the knowledge and wisdom of Christ, and you will become like Jesus. You will have discernment to know what is true and what is not, what’s God’s way and every other way. Amen, that’s what will happen.

“If you’re in Christ, you will be sanctified, you will grow in the knowledge and wisdom of Christ, and you will have discernment to know what is true.”

I pray that for all of us. Let’s pray together.

Thank you, Lord, that we need nothing but you. Thank the Lord for the word of God that lays it out quite clearly, and what we’re to look out for, what we’re warned about. Because Lord, it’s still going on. There are new religious systems popping up all over the place, claiming this and claiming that, but somewhere down the line, Lord, they rob us of your grace. They take away from us the things that you’ve given to us freely.

I pray, Lord, that we would be very concerned, that we would see the difference, and that we would hold to Christ. Lord, we would fellowship with one another and be bound together, so we can be strong as your body in these days—strong in truth, in doctrine and practice, and that Christ would be exalted.

So men and women, boys and girls, can be drawn to him, and that your church can become healthy and stand on the truth of scripture. I pray this in Christ.

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