Grace Greeley Teaching

Hebrews 3:1

Colossians 3:5-7

We are in Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, and it’s a most practical portion on the subject of sanctification. We’re looking at Colossians 3:5 through 11. I’m going to read the text for us as we get started this morning. The whole section goes from Colossians 3:5 to 4:6, but we’re going to focus our attention on this first section, verses 5 through 11, which is about dealing with remaining and indwelling sin in the life of the believer.

I want to start our reading in Colossians 3:1, and I’ll read through that section through verse 11. “Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.

“When Christ, who is our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory. Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked when you were living in them, but now you also lay them all aside. Wrath, anger, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

“Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with its evil practices, and have put on the new man, who is being renewed to a full knowledge, according to the image of the one who created him. A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman. But Christ is all and in all.”

 You can see, as Paul continues in verse 12 and following, he gives a list of virtues that we must put on as the elect of God who are holy and beloved. But first, before we get to what we need to put on, before we get to the positive instruction, there are two lists of vices, ten vices in all, five in each list, vices that we must abandoned.

In the two vice lists of verses 5 to 11, which we’re going to cover this week and next, there are three commands. The first two are followed by vice lists, two commands, and then a command and vice list and a command and vice lists. And then the third deals with a single sin.

The third command is addressing a single sin. So the first command in verse 5 is “consider as dead.” That’s the verb. That’s the command. It’s also translated in some translations, kill, mortify, or put to death and then the list follows.

The second command is in verse 8, it’s to lay aside or to put off; rid yourself of, is the idea and then that has a list. And then there’s a third command that follows immediately after that, it’s connected to it, in verse 9, and the command is, “do not lie to one another.” Another thing to point out, separate from the structure, is that these vice lists are related to each other.

The first list leads to the second list, and then it’s followed by the capstone sin of lying, that covers everything up. So the first vice list in verse 5, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, those have to do with the desires that drives the ambitions of the unbelieving heart.

 When the sinner gets what he wants, gets what she wants, all seems to be well in the moment, but if you deny the sinner his or her desires, there’s a second list for that: Wrath, anger, malice, slander, and abusive speech. Those are sins that happened when the desires of the first lists, the lust, the ambitions that drive an unbeliever, when those desires are hindered and frustrated and unfulfilled.

James makes the connection clear in James 4:1 to 2, when he asks, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have, and so you murder.” You see the first list going to the second list, “You’re envious,” envious, driven by greed, “and you cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.”

 First list of sins in verse 5, unfulfilled, frustrated leads to the second list in verse 8. Jesus says that all these vices, first and second lists and those are representative because there’s other lists too, but all these vices are within a man. They come up from the heart of a man to defile the man. It’s what comes from the sinful heart and the sin nature that comes out, out of the lips, out of the behavior, out of the hands, the feet. That’s what defiles a man.

Matthew 15:19, Jesus says, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, and murders and adulteries and fornications and thefts and false witness and slanders.” This is where what I’ve referred to as the capstone sin of lying. This is where lying comes in. It provides cover for all this defilement underneath.

According to Romans 2:15, “God has written His law,” and that is, we could just say it’s summed up in the Decalogue, basically the ten commandments, but “God has written His law on each and every human heart.” Not just believers have the law written on their heart, unbelievers too.

Every single human creature has God’s law written on the heart and so when people sin, they sense it, they feel it, they understand, and it troubles them. Maybe they can’t put it into words, maybe they can’t articulate what is going on that’s troubling them so much, but they are troubled. Romans 2:15 says, “They demonstrate, therefore, that the work of the law is written in their hearts and their conscience bears witness, and their thoughts are alternately either accusing them or else defending them.” And this is where lying comes in.

Since unbelievers, and I hate to have to add this, sadly, but even some professing believers do this; especially maybe those who are less mature or those who are professing believers, but really are not believers. They do this too. Instead of coming clean about their sin, they succumb to the temptation to create their own fig leaf coverings and so they lie.

Rather than telling the truth, they obfuscate, deflect, deceive, counter accuse, shift the blame; all those are tactics to avoid scrutiny, exposure, truth telling, accountability. But the truth is, they’re only hurting themselves in all that deception.

Now for the unbelieving. Obviously these vice lists, this lying, these cover ups, this is life as usual for them. They know nothing different. This is how they survive in the world without God, on their own. This is how they live in a sinful and wretched world. This is how they, they try to cobble together a life and eke out at a spiritual existence because they are troubled.

They’re not right with their creator. They know judgment is looming, and so they’ve got to find a way to work it out. If they’re going to continue to reject God, they’ve got to find a way to work out and live with themselves. This is how they live. They’re driven by the list of vices in verse 5 from the inside, and when they are frustrated in getting what they want, they react badly in all the ways that are listed in verse 8.

 And when they are caught at times, whether it’s by their own conscience that will not let them off the hook, or whether it’s by exposure or whether it’s by you pointing it out, or whether it’s by church discipline, well, then they lie about it, according to verse 9. This is the pattern of sinfulness in the sinful world, which Paul identified in verse 2, as the things that are on the earth. That’s the unbeliever.

For the believers, those who have been raised up with Christ. Believers seek the things above, believers set their mind on the things above, and believers want nothing to do with the things that are here below. And so to help us believers not seek the things below and not put our minds on things below, Paul does three things in this text to motivate us.

First, he commands us. He gives clear directive commands, imperatives in verse 5, verse 8, and verse 9; he commands us. That’s a motivation. When he directs a command to our will, to our conscience, we’re driven to want to obey. Keep in mind Paul’s writing here to believers. Colossians, 1:2, he calls them Saints and faithful brothers in Christ.

And yet at the same time, even while he identifies them positionally, and even by their growing and emerging behavior, he knows the culture they are coming out of. He’s walked through these lands. He’s walked through the cities. He’s seen the people. He knows exactly what they are coming from. He knows the sins that they’re prone to commit. He knows how they’ve been weaned in the culture. He knows that whoever walks into the church walks in with all that culture and all that baggage dragging behind him and so he gives commands to motivate every command from God.

 Every command aimed at a Christian is useful to us, isn’t it? To instruct the mind, to activate the affections and then to engage the will. Because the regenerate heart wants to obey God. Those who are born again, they want to walk in the footsteps of their father in heaven. They want to follow their older brother Jesus Christ, do what he did, live as he lived.

That’s why these commands of Scripture are so vital. We obey not to be saved. We obey because we are saved. We love to obey, like a tender child loves to obey the command of his parents. Second, to motivate us not to seek the things below, Paul names the sins. Naming the sins is, in and of itself, a motivation. Identifying them for what they really are, that is motivation to depart from them.

The unbelieving, again, sadly to say, along with some professing believers who are sinful, but the unbelieving in particular refuse to see, refuse to identify their sins for what they are. They really like to describe their sins in much softer terms. So it’s, it’s a fling, it’s an affair. It’s, it’s a passionate romance, little weekend tryst. But God’s word says no, it’s sexual immorality and impurity. It’s driven by greed and lust and it angers God and it destroys lives.

Unbelievers like to describe sins of the second list as, oh, I’m just, I just got a little frustrated. I just need to vent. Just need to speak my mind. Hey, I’m just being honest or how about this one? Just saying, that’s never attached to anything good. No, all that is just. You’re using euphemism to cover over wrath, anger and slander and abusive speech from your mouth. And no, it is absolutely destructive, those sins.

Sinners recoil at describing their sins and their lifestyles so clearly. They protest strongly when they are accused of such things. But if anyone should commit any of these offenses against them, they find the language much less objectionable. They actually agree. They see it far more clearly when it’s done to them than when they do it to others.

But everyone knows the destruction that these sins cause, which is why everyone senses the need in our time for self-improvement, for becoming a better person, being the best you you can be. What everyone will not admit and what they refuse to think long about or deeply about is how they offend a holy God and how there literally is hell to pay.

Now for the believing, when the Bible name sins, when Paul identifies sins, when he calls them what they are so that we see them in all of their ugliness. When we discern how terribly destructive that they are, when we learn about the offence that they are to our God, when we learn how harmful they are to others. For all those who are seeking the things above, we want to be rid of them. We want them gone. We want no connection between these lists and anything, not only just in our actions or our speech, we don’t even want them in our minds.

I know from my own experience and I know in talking to other believers, sometimes even when you have a dream, when you commit sin in a dream, you wake up wanting to confess your sins and I say go for it. I know I didn’t actually commit a sin in my dream, but just the fact that I’m dreaming sin is an indication of the problem in my heart and I just feel the need compelled to just God forgive me.

Thank you for the gospel that’s purified for me from all of that. Wipe it away. So to motivate us not to seek the things below and to help us to put them off, Paul issues commands. He names and identifies the sins as they are. And then third, Paul adds extra reasons, extra motivation to rid our lives of all of these sins and that’s what you see following verse 5.

Reasons, explanation in verses 6 and 7, more further motivation and again in the second-half of verse 9 through verse 11, is further motivation, further reasons to put off sinning. So with that very brief introduction, just to this whole section, we’re going to proceed today with verses 5 through 7. We’re going to do so under two headings, number one and these are your outline points. Number one: What to put to death and number two: What to call to mind. What to put to death, and what to call to mind.

So we look at that list in verse 5. Honestly, every single one of these sins stands at the head of a concept that could get its very own sermon. But rather than a long, full-throated series on hamartiology, I need to discipline myself to tighten this up, stick to the text, keep moving, because Paul’s point here is not to give a full orbed hamartiology, the doctrine of sin, but it’s to motivate us to rid ourselves of things below. So I’m going to stick to that, okay?

Number one: What to put to death. What to put to death, verse 5, therefore, based on everything in verses 1 to 4, based on “you have died, your life is hidden with Christ and God.” Based on you are seeking the things above, you’re setting your mind on things above, not on the things on the earth. “Therefore, in light of that, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed, which is idolatry.”

 In the global war on terror, The Defense Intelligence Agency provided a deck of cards to the coalition forces in Iraq and the official name of this deck of cards was something very DIA-ish, Personality Identification Playing Cards; not a good name, rather boring, but it’s a very useful tool. Proved to be a very useful tool to help identify the 55 most wanted in Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Troops called the deck, Iraqi most wanted and the top card in the deck, the Ace of Spades: Saddam Hussein. A friend of mine that I went through training with is the one who crawled into the hole where Saddam Hussein was hiding and dragged him out of there, arrested him, and apprehended him and handed him over and had to actually spend time with him. He told me that man is pure evil. Glad we went to war there.

 Knowing and identifying the opposing threat is so vital in warfare, so effective in eliminating threats. You know every card in that deck was captured or killed by coalition forces. So since mortification of sin is spiritual warfare, it is very important to identify the threat, isn’t it?

To be clear about it, Paul wants us to target our sins for termination, and this is not a mission to capture, it is a mission to kill. This is assassination and it is not a black op, this is a sanctioned op. It comes directly from the top. If Paul was to issue a deck of cards to us, the deck would be called, the Members of your Earthly Body and the specific sins that he names all high-ranking targets in the deck of cards.

You may remember from last week, the same expression came in verse 2, “the things that are on the earth.” Remember that expression, ta epi tes ges? That same expression is actually found here verbatim in verse 5. It’s parallel. It starts with ta mele, which is the members, and then, ta epi tes ges. So literally the translation is the members of the things that are on the earth.

He said, “don’t put your mind on the things that are on the earth.” And now let’s go after, mortify, kill the members, the things that are on the earth. The word, members, this word actually literally refers to body parts. So our limbs, our legs, our arms, individual parts of the human body.

Obviously here, Paul’s using it as a metaphor, but English translations, if you go through and compare Colossians 3 verse 5 in different various translations, you’ll find that the English translations are different in how to give the sense of the metaphor. I think all the translations are trying to avoid giving the wrong impression, that sin, in and of itself, is natural to the human body. That’s not true.

When God created us in the very beginning, was there sin attached to us then? If not, it’s not natural to the human body. So it’s not that the physical body is problematic. We don’t want to perpetuate the errors that Paul just addressed and corrected in Colossians 2:23. We don’t want to engage in severe treatment of the body.

And there have been figures in church history, like Origin, who actually cut off a member of his body to avoid sinning with it. Grotesque, brutal, and completely antithetical to the text here. That is utterly wrong, but if you just get a survey of the different translations and how they try to render the members of the things that are on the earth, you get an understanding of what they’re trying to do and what they’re trying to accomplish in their translations.

 As we read in the LSB, it’s the members of your earthly body. The word body is not in the original for the CSB, for the Christian standard Bible. It’s what belongs to your worldly nature. Nature, that’s not in the text either and it gives a false impression. Some people based on a translation of nature, believe that Christians have another nature, leads to this false kind of two nature schizophrenic view of the Christian, as if we have two parallel natures, one new that’s created in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit, delivered in the new birth and regeneration.

But then also side by side like some kind of a yin and Yang thing and a dark and light kind of a thing. Some Christians have believed based on this, said they have also along with a new nature, the old nature is still there and it’s competing and they’re wrestling with each other. It’s kind of this dualistic view of the inner man.

Listen, the biblical teaching is the Christian has one nature, that’s it, and it’s a new nature. What some have called the old nature is more accurately identified in verse 9, as the old man. That’s the literal rendering of the original, and it does not use the word nature, which is phusis, but the word anthrōpos, which is man. That old man was put to death in Christ, and as the text says, he has been castaway, been put off. The ESV translation says, “Put to death, therefore what is earthly in you.”

He, Paul, gives a list of virtues that we must put on as the elect of God who are holy and beloved.” Travis Allen

The new English translation, whatever in your nature belongs to the earth, at risks the same misconstruing as the CSB. The winner in my book is the good old King James Version of the Bible. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.” Mortify, therefore, your members, which are upon the earth. I like that picture because it gives this concept, as you can imagine, of some kind of a monstrous growth on the body, big, ugly, grotesque, some abnormal appendage, like growing out of our torso, sticking out. It causes pain because it keeps getting caught on things.

It’s a deformity. It’s like another limb that’s growing out of our trunk and getting in the way of our legs and tripping us up, so it needs to be removed and cut off and, and flung far, far away from us. Again, the metaphor is providing a picture here. Paul is not Speaking of a problem with the physical body. It’s physical body parts. He’s portraying sin, in pictures, in a metaphor as abnormal parts, as deformed limbs that are festering and toxic and cancerous and they need to be cut off and removed.

I think the King James Version scores another point for using the coolest word ever for the concept of killing our sin, which is mortify. Mortification of sin, isn’t that a cool name? You should use it. You should use it, and you should use it in public. So people are like, morta-what? And then you can explain.

We’re going to come back to how we’re supposed to kill or mortify our sins in just a bit. But first, let’s start through the deck of cards and we’ll go from the top, the aces and one of the kings, the king of spades in verse 5. And after we go through that, after we clearly identify our targets at the top of the deck, we’ll learn what it means to kill or mortify or put them to death.

 First in verse 5, working through the list, the king of spades; What is it that ruins kings and their kingdoms that they rule? Sexual immorality, one of the things, but sexual immorality is the king of spades in the deck. And the word is porneia. And we’re working from the king of spades and we’re going to go up through the aces, because as Paul goes through this list, he starts with, yes, what’s defiling, but it’s really the most important one is at the end.

 The one that drives all the others is the greed, which is idolatry. It drives everything else. That’s going to be the ace of spades, but we’ll get there in a moment. The king of spades. Sexual immorality. The word is porneia. That’s the main word in the New Testament for any and all sexual immorality. Fornication, adultery, pornography, masturbation, which is also a sin, prostitution, homosexuality, either kind of homosexual, any kind of transgender, transsexual, bestiality, all these different sins.

Vile sin lists in the Old Testament. The practice of idol worshipping nations, all that stuff, any of it individually, all of it collectively, porneia. Any extramarital sexual activity, every unlawful, out of wedlock sexual thought, imagination, action or behavior, if it is not conducted within the bonds of holy matrimony within marriage, God condemns this as porneia. It is forbidden. It is utterly ruinous.

 Sexual immorality destroys families. It shreds marriages. It corrupts the generations that have to live through the wreckage of it. And some today are under the delusion, well, that if it’s done in the privacy of my own home and not with another person. So if it’s pornography on the Internet, that’s a victimless crime. Oh, yeah. You know how many of those people who are being watched are trafficked, they’re captured and they’re drugged and they’re made to do all kinds of vile, immoral things for the pleasure of voyeurs watching on the Internet. It’s absolute filth, and you’re participating in that.

It is not a victimless crime, not only that, but anybody who participates in that sin is sinning against his own body or her own body. You turn into a shell of a person, it erodes your confidence, and you walk in with your head hanging low because you can’t look anybody in the eye. It’s defiling, it’s corrupt, and it does affect when you are rendered ineffective. When you walk into the church, you’re rendered ineffective to serve the members of the body.

So yes, that private sin you think is anonymous and done in the privacy of your own home, never to be exposed, only seen by God, shows a lack of the fear of God and you know it. And when you walk in, you can’t serve here. You feel it. You know your conscience is guilty. You feel the shame. And I just want to say that if anybody struggles with that, you need to come and talk to us. We’ll help you. We’ve helped so many. We will help you too.

 God shows mercy to those who confess their sins and forsake. The elders were meeting this week. We had a conversation, two of our older elders, and I’ll leave it to you to figure out which elders I’m talking about when I say that. But two of our older elders were talking about how when they were growing up, they didn’t know any divorced people. Very few. If there was someone divorced in their community, that person stood out.

Maybe one divorcee and their parents had to explain to them what divorce meant, because it was such an oddity, such a strange and foreign concept. But today divorce is so rampant and so commonplace, it’s really hard to find kids who know what it is to grow up in a two-parent family. Seems shocking to find kids who grow up in two parent households. And I have to say it like this and to add that where dad is a man and mom is a woman.

In fact, as I’ve talked with teachers in our congregation and teachers in other places, I’ve discovered how rare it is for them to find kids who are in their classrooms who grow up in homes that are not blended. Mom’s new partner, dad’s new girlfriend, each one dragging a gaggle of kids in that are born into previous relationships into the current relationships. And so it’s just a mix of all kinds of relationships and all weakened and attenuated by lack of blood connection.

It’s tragic and I’m not putting anyone down when I say all this. I don’t intend to make anyone feel uncomfortable or less than, because the Scripture makes us uncomfortable enough with all of our sin. But I just, I want you to know, I sympathize. I feel compassion for those whose lives have been shattered by divorce and ruined by sexual immorality. Divorce destroys and often due to sexual immorality that’s lurking in the darkness. Listen, sexual sin is not innocent fun. It’s not a victimless crime. It causes defilement and for generations to come. And so we come to a next point. Second, the ace of clubs.

The ace of clubs, the sin of impurity. Sin of impurity. When kids grow up in these blended families, especially the young, they’re vulnerable to the sins of sexual immorality that’s being, may be, perpetrated upon them by step brothers, step sisters, babysitters, babysitters boyfriends, all manner of corruption.

And then when kids are abused and kids who have to witness the sexual morality of the lives of the moms and dads above them, that impurity passes on from one generation to the next and becomes even more vile, even more defiling, degrading, impure. Young boys grow up seeking sexual experiences. And when they’ve been abused, their sexual experiences are often perverted and twisted. And they find pornography, which these days is finding them. And sex drives are ignited far too early, so early, when these boys have no self-control, they’re easily enslaved to their lusts.

 Young girls who’ve been abused tend to be utterly frightened of sex and it’s no small wonder, when some try to avoid men and gravitate towards softer women, engage in the sin of lesbianism. Some come to believe, sadly and so wrongly, they think they can protect themselves from hurt by finding refuge with another woman. And that is such a lie.

In every homosexual and lesbian relationship that I have had to counsel or to get into and try to help people out of, there is devastating, hurt, devastating. All of this is impurity. Akatharsia takes the word clean, katharos so you can hear the word cathartic, clean, and it negates that word with an alpha predative, akatharsia uncleanness, impurity, defilement, and the most basic, the most literal sense of the word. It just means filth or waste.

When it’s used, the word is used to describe a grave. It means decayed flesh. And that’s why among the holiness laws of Israel you didn’t touch a dead body. You didn’t get involved in a grave detail before some holy feast or some holy thing, because it would cause you to be defiled and unclean and ritually, ceremonially impure.

But figuratively, when we take what we can all see is defilement, things are rotting, decaying, filthy, putrid, stinking. Take that literal visual, physical imagery and then transfer that into the moral realm. And that’s what Paul is speaking of here. In this context, clearly refers to sexual indecency, defiling, degrading aspects of filthy practices that are really too vile to speak about in public.

I’ve talked to some doctors who have had to come in after when there’s some kind of a defiling thing that’s happened between men, women, heterosexual, homosexual couples, and it’s just too vile to speak about. But impurity is the right word, defiling. Usually the ace of diamonds would come next in the order and then the ace of hearts. But considering the list of sins, we have to invert the order. Obviously, the ace of hearts is the sin of passion and the ace of diamonds evil desire.

Third, the ace of hearts, passion. The word is pathos. Pathos, some people pronounce it and pathos has two senses. One refers to suffering and you can hear that in the paschal lamb, the suffering lamb. But the other side is referring to strong unchecked emotion. So pathos is what responds to something, it responds to some stimulus, and it comes out in what can’t be controlled. So on the one hand, suffering, weeping can’t be controlled, and pain and suffering can’t be controlled, when you’re stabbed or when you’re hurt, when you’re persecuted.

And on the other side, when there’s a provocation or a lust or an image or a person, that passion just runs wild. That’s the idea here in the New Testament. Passion like that is in the sense of an unchecked undisciplined emotion and especially in context like this one, it’s used to convey evil desire or a sinful craving. It’s sexual in nature. Lustful desire is a good translation or uncontrolled sexual passion or an evil craving.

 If you have your Bible, you can turn over to Romans chapter 1. I am going to have a few cross references, so I would just encourage you to follow me along to the cross references, because I want your eyes to look at the text and I want you to see in the text what will inform your mind and your conscience. So follow along in these crossed references. Romans chapter 1, verse 24, “It’s because of idolatry, spiritual idolatry, departing from God that God.” “Therefore,” verse 24, “Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.”

Skip to verse 26. “For this reason, God gave them over to dishonorable passions.” Again, well, what’s written in verse 25? Let’s read it. “It’s they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who’s blessed forever. Amen.” What is that? That’s idolatry.

Because of idolatry, God hands them over to sexual lust and sin. Verse 26, “For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their females exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the males abandoned the natural function of the female, and burned in their desire toward one another. Males of males committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

 In verse 24, the word epithymia, lust, which comes next in the deck of cards, but it’s joined akatharsia, impurity, and then in verse 26, degrading passions and the word there, pathos, that’s the word. 1 Thessalonians 4:4 and 5, you don’t even turn there, but Paul tells that church, young church, emerging from the native soil of pagan immorality, each of you need to know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like Gentiles who do not know God.

 So we’re going through the deck, knocking them down. Sexual morality, impurity, passion, then next fourth, the ace of diamonds, which is evil desire. Evil desire. The words are epithymia, which is desire or lust and then kakos. Kakos, which is evil, bad. The word, epithymia can actually stand alone by itself and convey lustful cravings and evil desires, unrestrained desires for what’s forbidden, which Paul wrote of in Romans 2:26 and 27.

So when Paul adds the word, evil, to the adjective, kakos to the word, epithymia, he is strengthening the sense. He’s adding further emphasis. He uses a very similar strengthened emphasis for the word, epithymia in Galatians 5:16, but instead of using the word evil to describe the epithymia, he substitutes the word flesh, sarx, which is a theological synonym.

He warns them not to carry out the desires of the flesh, and then he proceeds in verse 19, Galatians chapter 5. You can turn there to Galatians 5:19, he can, he proceeds with another list of vices which are very similar to this one. “The deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,” Verse 20, “idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you. Just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

In 2 Timothy 2:22, Paul commands his pastoral protege, the younger man, Timothy, he tells him there to, “flee youthful lusts,” says that to a pastor. Important to take note of that. And Paul intends in speaking to Timothy about fleeing youthful lust. He intends to expand the concept of lust, desire from sexual immorality only, and he wants to expand it to all that opposes what he describes in verse 22, what opposes righteousness, faith, love and peace.

So epithymia isn’t sexual in nature only according to 2 Timothy 2:22, but it is that which is unrighteous, that which is unfaithful, that which is not loving, that which is not peaceful, and gets the young man into what Paul warns against in 2 Timothy 2:23. He says “refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels.” Sounds like James 4:1 and 2, doesn’t it? “The Lord’s bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach and patient when wronged.”

Evil desire, lusts, they oppose righteousness, they lead to all kinds of unrighteousness. They oppose faith, they lead to doubt and unbelieving. Instead of love, it’s self-love. Instead of peace, it’s war and quarreling and fighting. That’s why Paul tells Pastor Timothy, listen of all young men, Timothy, being put into the position of leading people is going to provoke all manner of lust inside of you, not just sexual, but desires, evil desires to get even, to prove your case, to defend yourself, to shout when you ought to be silent.

And you as a Pastor, Timothy, you need to set yourself as an example of righteousness and faith and love and peace. You can’t strike back when they strike at you. When sinners come and sin against you and it draws out your sin, you have to be a man not driven by his lusts, not driven by his passions, but you need to be a man who steps back and takes a breath and prays rather than fights.

Evil lusts are not only sexual in nature, but sexual immorality is the predominant, most apparent expression of evil desire. Unbridled evil desires lead to foolish, ignorant speculations, which are very prominent among the young. Quarreling, quibbling, fighting, arguing, impatience when treated unjustly, when wronged by someone else, defensive, want to go to blows. So flee youthful lusts, all of them. All youthful lusts and the evil lust, especially of sexual immorality and the impurity of this age.

Finally number five, we come to the ace of spades, the highest card in the deck. It’s the sin of greed or covetousness. Avarice is another term. There’s a parallel over in Ephesians that clarifies this, where Paul says in Ephesians 4:19, that the Gentiles, they’ve given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, and then this with greediness.

The CSB, the Christian Standard Bible, says, “They give themselves over to the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.” That’s greed. It’s an insatiable desire. Why? Because sin doesn’t satisfy. And when you sit at this level, in order to get the same buzz, you have to sit at this level. And then when that no longer works, you have to go higher, still deeper, still more defiling, more impure.

We call it gateway sins, they lead to total enslavement of the mind, the life, the character. It’s all driven by greed, covetousness, the desire for more and more. Paul adds a relative clause to the word greed, he says, “which is idolatry.” It’s the very character of idolatry, worshipping an idol, which is nothing. It will not satisfy. An idol can’t deliver on what it promises. Jeremiah said it this way, you’ve forsaken the fountain of living waters, and you’ve given yourselves over to vessels that can hold no water. You worship idols that can’t deliver.

 They have no mouths to speak, ears to hear, can’t hear your prayers, can’t speak anything into existence. They have no power. That’s why this insatiable character of greed, the fact that covetous desire is never satisfied, is tied to the very nature of idolatry, because idols, they offer false hopes, they deceive with false promises, because they are nothing, they have nothing, they deliver nothing and so the idolater keeps seeking more and more.

The greedy, idolatrous heart longs for the idols to satisfy the innermost cravings, but they cannot, because idols are nothing but deadwood, hard stone, lifeless, empty. And it’s really in that final form, idolatry. Greed, which is idolatry; covetous, which is idolatry. Coveting, desire and idolatrous worship are really of a piece and it really does point the way back, doesn’t it? Because if the ace of spades is greed, which is idolatry.

If the ace of spades in the deck, the Saddam Hussein in the list of sins, and ourselves the most controlling, determinative force in us is covetous desire, which is idolatry, well then we know the way back, don’t we? Cut down all idols, crush them into pieces like Moses did with the golden calf. Crush it into powder and pour it into the brook. Get rid of it.

 John Calvin said, “Our hearts are like idol factories, just pumping out more and more things to worship, serve, pursue.” So every time something’s pumped out, you just take a big hammer and smash it, because the way back is worship. The way back is satisfaction in your God. The way back is Christ and his righteousness. The way back is the purity of God and his truth. It’s the love and the worship of God that will lead us back.

The life of the spirit will suffocate the desires of the flesh, and you will have no time, no energy, and no ambition remaining to gratify the flesh. Travis Allen

 The five vices, those are what we must put to death, though, every time they come up. Every time we see them, every time there’s a hint, we got to pursue it, track it down and execute. So let’s talk about this issue of executing, terminating sin. Let’s talk about mortification. Nekroō is the verb. You can hear necro, necromancy is associated with death, but that’s the verb. Nekroō translated, variously, as consider as dead or kill or mortify, put to death. What does this mean? What does it mean to kill sin? How do you put something as intangible as a thought to death.

When you think carefully about it, when you meditate on the picture of a member that needs to be killed, destroyed, reflect on what it means to kill something; Paul has used the perfect metaphor to teach us what to do with the sin that is troubling us. Here’s how John Owen explained it, “To kill a man or any other living thing is to take away the principle of all his strength, vigor, and power, so that he cannot act or exert or put forth any proper actings of his own. The mortification of indwelling sin remaining in our mortal bodies means that sin may not have a life and power to bring forth the works or the deeds of the flesh.”

That’s what it is to kill a sin, choke it, take away its life source. To kill a sin, to mortify, to put it to death, to take out the aces and the kings in the deck of cards. It means to choke the life out of them, starve them of their breath, their life, their food. Don’t feed them. Render the thoughts and the attitudes and the desires, therefore, as ineffective, powerless, inept, unable to have any influence on you.

So when we starve, sin, when we refuse to feed it, give it water to drink, air to breathe, we choke it out and we find this sexual immorality has no life. Impurity is removed, passions and emotions are restrained and put under control, put into shackles and bonds to be used for good.

Evil desires then are not fed, but starved and cries of the covetousness and greed inside reduced to a whimper and then go silent. Galatians 5:16-17 says, “But I say,” you ask, how do you do this? Galatians 5:16-17 answers, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.” It’s a positive. The best defense here is offense. Walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are in opposition to one another.

 So pursue the life of the Spirit, walk by the Spirit, occupy yourself with the things of the Spirit. Let the Word of God, which the Spirit himself authored, let that dwell richly within you. Crowd out other thoughts. Be sure your time and your energy gives first place to things of the Spirit. Word of God, prayer, loving, serving others, doing the one and others of the church, sacrificing yourself for the good of other people. Give, give, give, serve, serve, serve, and I’m not just talking about busy yourself to the point of distraction. I’m talking about genuine Christian service that is driven by love from God, by the fruit of the Spirit.

Because you are saturated with the Word of God and you have choked out any ground and robbed it of any nutrient that would feed sexual immorality and impurity and evil desire and greed and pathos, passion. When you occupy your time walking by the Spirit, the flesh has no power. You choke sinful desire and fleshly ambition. You rob them of air. You step on the air hose, cut off their life so they have no power to influence you.

That’s what it means to put to death the members of your earthly body, the members that are upon the earth. Take away the principle of all of its strength, its vigor, its power, so that these abnormal appendages and these vile deformities, they cannot act or exert or act on their own. For every single one of these sins, it has its own air supply, its own food source and part of growing in wisdom and maturity as a Christian is to discover what that air source is, where it’s found, what the food is, what you are unwittingly feeding it, and go in and take away the food. Cut off the air. It’s part of sanctification.

So give your mind, beloved, to the life of the Spirit, and let the Spirit then grow your affections for God. Give yourself to true worship, not to idolatry, because idolatry and covetousness go hand in hand. They feed each other. Give your will a heavenly ambition so that you seek the things above. Let your heart, your mind, will, and affections be occupied by the Spirit. When you do, the life of the spirit will suffocate the desires of the flesh, and you will have no time, no energy, and no ambition remaining to gratify the flesh.

Obviously, there’s so much more to learn, but we don’t want to stop and do a hamartiology series. We want to keep moving and follow Paul’s motivations here. I trust that you know, older, wiser, more mature Christians who can give you some practical tips on how to work this out in your life. And I hope that you will do that. And I hope young men, young women, young Christians, you will do that. Don’t be too proud to come near for help. That’s what older Christians who’ve been down the path ahead of you, who’ve actually put these disciplines and self-control into effect in their lives and practicing their lives, that’s what they’re there for.

I read out of Titus 2 for our Scripture reading with that intent in mind. So you can see older men and older women are to teach the younger and you younger people, you are to seek us out. Don’t wait for us to come to you. We will like to come to you, but we cannot read your minds. So come ask, we’ll help. We love you. We love you.

Time for one more point number two, what to call to mind to motivate us further to kill sin, put off sin, start working through the deck of cards. Paul adds some compelling reasons as to why we ought to put our sins to death in verses 6 and 7. “On account of these things,” he says, “The wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked when you were living in them.”

 So several reasons that Paul adds, to compel us, to motivate us to kill sin in our life. First reason: To target these sins is that God targets these sins. Paul says, “It’s on account of these things that the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.” In some copies of God’s word that you may have in your possession, there may be a text note that says correctly, I believe, the phrase, “upon the sons of disobedience” is not original to this text. That’s true.

I believe it comes from Ephesians 5:6 where it says, “Because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience,” sounds exactly similar to Colossians 3:6, doesn’t it? But the addition, I believe, into Colossians is from an overzealous cross-referencing scribe, who just was writing down notes and then it actually got incorporated early into the text. The most reliable textual witnesses don’t have it. And so you’re free to find that text, which is really good, find in Ephesians 5:6, not here in Colossians 3:6.

Nevertheless, the fact that because of these things, the wrath of God comes gives us a theological reason to mortify our own sins. God is holy, and he hates all sin and his wrath, here the word is orgē, which shows up again in verse 8. There, in contrast to thumos. Thumos is more like an outburst of anger in reference to God.

In particular, orge refers to a settled indignation. God’s wrath over sin is not like a human passion that rises and falls, it’s mutable, that is ever changing. God’s wrath does not change, it is a fixed, settled, immutable disposition of his immutable essence. His displeasure over all sin, hatred of all that offends his holiness, his wrath for all that defies his goodness and hurts his children.

For the moment, in the world, God’s wrath is held fast behind the dam of his merciful patience, behind the dam of his sovereign timing, as he gives sinners time and opportunity to repent and believe the gospel. But there will come a day, as Ephesians 6 says, the dam will burst and God’s wrath will pour out on the disobedient. Paul says there, “This you know with certainty that no sexually immoral person, no impure or greedy person who’s an idolater has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

 How significantly the Scripture exceeds our culture, in its pursuit of holiness and purity, in its sobriety about sin and righteousness. Doug Moo, one of the commentators, who wrote about these vice lists in Scripture, and he says this, “The vice lists in Scripture differ in this respect from counterparts in the larger Greek world, which were concerned simply to foster moral improvement.”

 Boy, so true of our day, isn’t it? Everybody’s trying to become a better you, a better self, a better version of themselves. Moo goes on to say in the New Testament, “in contrast, the vice lists function to depict the lifestyle of people who are in enmity with the holy God of the Bible and thus suffer eternal condemnation.”

It’s not just that they’re stumbling and falling and they’re victims of their own good looks, that they just keep running into sexual immorality. No, it’s because they are fundamentally at enmity with God. They’re enemies of God, and this behavior that comes out of them is an evidence of their enmity with God and God will destroy both the sin and the sinner when he judges and sends to hell.

 Doug Moo goes on to say, “The vices are therefore elevated to a whole new level of seriousness.” Listen, God targets sins. Sinners need to know that, the gospel of self-improvement, to become the best versions of ourselves, to do better, to make ourselves proud of ourselves, always telling our children just make a better choice. I won’t even get into the kind of enslavement that that kind of moralism is to the sinner.

People can’t just be better, that’s enslavement. That’s what Martin Luther was going through, when he’s crawling up the steps, kissing everyone and going through the rosary. All those self-improvement tactics are all the world has to offer. They cannot sanctify, but God offers salvation from his own wrath against our sin and that wrath is coming, verse 6.

Second reason that you want to target these sins is you know why God targets these sins and you agree with them. Paul says, “In them,” that is in these sins, “you also once walked when you were living in them.” instead of you, also, it’s probably even an emphatic here; you yourselves, you yourselves used to walk in these. So you all understand, you’ve come to know, because you’ve experienced this.

You’ve walked in it as regards behavior. You’ve lived in that filth as referring to lifestyle. You see why God hates sin. You know why his wrath comes in judgement. Because sin that you participated in is so defiling, so degrading, troubles your conscience, fills you with shame and destroys lives, breaks relationships, disunifies, it hurts.

Let your agreement with God over the sinfulness of sin, the badness of wickedness, the degradation of defilement, and the absolute affront to the beauty of God’s holiness and his goodness. Let your agreement with God motivate you to put these sins to death and to rid your life of them. That’s motivation number two.

 There’s a third reason to target these sins. You’re now on God’s side, you walk with him, you share in his life, and so you love doing as he does, as your father does. You love what he loves and you also hate what he hates. You’re now jealous and you grow in jealousy for his holiness, his reputation. And this little point comes from a little word, but such a joy producing word in these sins, verse 7, “you once walked.” Isn’t that good news?

The gospel, in the word, Greek word, pote, once. “You once walked in these,” that used to be your condition, your character, your habitual practice, when you lived in all those sins, but no more, no more, beloved. You once were involved in the vilest of vile sins. But then something changed. Paul said the same thing to the Corinthians in another vice list.

He says this in 1 Corinthians 6 verses 9 and following. “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals.” That’s talking about the male female partner in a homosexual, male homosexual relationship. The effeminate on the one hand, the homosexual, the male role on the other. “nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God.” And then this, “Such were some of you.”

Such were some of you Christians, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, declared righteous in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the spirit of our God. That’s such good news, isn’t it? Such good news. It’s what Paul said in Titus chapter 3, “We ourselves also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures. We spent our life in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.” But then something happened. God intervened, “the kindness and affection of God our Savior, appeared and he saved us not by works that we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

 Good news, beloved, be motivated. Be motivated to drive after your sins and put them to death, to kill them, to mortify them. Take out that deck of cards and realize that God targets your sins, and so should you. And you agree with God that these sins are vile and worthy of death. And then realize, oh, wait a minute, I’m on God’s side. I’m now under the grace of God. So consider this whole section, Colossians 3:5 through 11, as kind of like God’s target package and he’s giving it to you. He saying come on in, let me bring you into the briefing room. Let me open up the target package. Let me show you who these targets are, what they look like, what characterizes them, where they get their food, where they get their supply, who’s supplying them, what needs to be done. Let me bring you into this.

You can go out as my special operative and kill sin. So cool. You get to go on a sanction, seek and destroy mission, target your sin, kill it. Because we always want to remember what John Owen so famously said, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” There’s no neutrality out there, he says, “There’s not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on, and it’ll be so while we live in this world.”

So “be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” Get after it, folks. Pull out that deck of cards, Christianity’s most wanted, and go, get to work. God’s on your side. He’s given you the authority of Christ to kill and the ability by the Spirit, the weapons of our warfare. They’re not carnal, but they’re mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

 Kill sin. You have the ability and you have the desire and the new nature to join him in targeting and killing sin. And as I said, this is a sanctioned operation. So put your sin in the crosshairs; take aim at that target and with a slow, steady trigger pull, execute, assassinate your sin. Let’s pray.

Our Father, we thank you that you have not only declared us righteous, justifying us by faith, because of your grace, because of your mercy to us in Christ, but in addition to that, you don’t leave us in the muck of our sins, but you not only empower us and strengthen us and give us the model in Christ of how to turn away from sin and give us the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, but you give your Word. We have the intelligence briefing from you, from the Scripture. We’re brought into the briefing room. You yourself teach us by the Spirit. You instruct us through the Word.

We pray that You would work in every single life here to motivate them to get on with the work of sanctification, their own part in killing sin. And father, I pray that there would be no one who hears this kind of a message who would leave this place unchanged. But I know just through experience that there are people who will walk out of here unchanged, and they will do nothing to change their lives. They’ll continue on as they were, stealing themselves in their pride, stiffening their neck, hardening in their hearts.

And so father, I pray for just as an expression of your mercy and your love and your saving grace, knowing I was once a hard-hearted, stiff-necked sinner like that, hearing messages like this one walking away unchanged. But you were kind to me. You broke my heart and I pray that you would do the same for any hard-hearted sinner here, that you would not let them be unchanged, but that you would extend your mercy, that you would loosen their neck, soften their heart, give them eyes to see and ears to hear, and a heart that will believe and understand. And I pray for all those who are here who are soft hearted Christians with sensitive, tender consciences.

Well, father, will you encourage them in this fight. Let them know about the great power of the side that they are now enlisted into the armies of the Lord of hosts. They stand shoulder to shoulder with angels, with Christ himself as the victor at the head of the army. And these sins in the deck of cards, they will be captured and killed to your glory. In the name of Jesus Christ. Will you motivate us, all of us, your true people, will you help us to pursue the sins in our lives. And as we go through this section, please help us to be a markedly different people from the rest of the world so that this gospel that we proclaim and the doctrines that we hold to and the theology that we do love and adhere to would be put on display and change lives. Please sanctify us by your truth. Your word is truth. We love you, Father. We thank you for your help. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Colossians 3:1-4

Well, please turn your Bibles to Colossians Chapter 3. Paul is turning a corner, here, and preparing us for some practical application. So we’re going to get into some very practical things in the weeks to come in Colossians 3 and following. But he’s turning a corner. This is a hinge point in the letter.

And in Colossians 2, the section we just finished, Paul, as you know, was confronting the false teachers that were troubling the Colossian church. Several times we have pointed out how the false teachers liked to prey upon Christians’ sensitivity to sin. And especially so among new Christians, among immature Christians. I say new Christians, and I say immature Christians.

New Christians are those who are brand new to Christ and realize that after they get through the elation of the new birth and new life in Christ and forgiven sin, and after that, we may call it a honeymoon period, after that kind of passes by, then they realize, Wait a minute, I’m in a war, and they have sins that they never knew were there, that all of a sudden they have to confess and deal with. And it’s sometimes overwhelming to them. And false teachers love to prey upon people like that.

I also say immature Christians because there can be immature Christians who’ve been sitting in a church for a long, long time, listening to messages week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, and they still have not assimilated the truth.

They still don’t really look like strong, mature, steady saints, but they look like petty, bickering, bitter people who call themselves Christians. False teachers love to prey upon those types of people, too.

In either case, whether young or old, new or mature, whatever we are, we realize that sin is a problem. Sin is such a nuisance, isn’t it? And I don’t mean to trivialize sin by calling it merely a nuisance. It is a nuisance, but it’s also a menace. Sin’s a great evil. It is the greatest malady that the world has ever known. It’s the, sin is the catastrophe of mankind that separated man from God and brought death into the world.

God, we know, dealt with sin once and for all in the death of Christ on the cross. He erased the guilt of our sin, canceled the certificate of debt written against us. We’ve seen this in the text in Colossians 2. He nailed that certificate of debt to the cross, and “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” since penalty is removed from us, it’s gone forever because Christ took the penalty on himself in his own body when he died on the cross for our sins.

And now that we have been saved by grace through faith, now that we are new creations in Christ, as I said, we awaken to a brand-new reality. We have been born again, and yet we have been born onto a battlefield.

From the moment of the new birth, we realize we awake to a fight for holiness, a fight for righteousness. We find ourselves on the pathway from infancy to maturity, and yet we’re facing, even from the time as a little infant in Christ, we face conflicts and adversities and afflictions and suffering.

And even though we can find ourselves reeling, we wonder at times what hit us, we need to learn and realize nothing is actually going wrong at all. This is not only normal for the Christian; this is all happening according to a good and wise plan of God for us.

These are called trials, as we’ve come to learn, trials, tests, proving us, all designed by God to shape us and to strengthen us and form us and mature us in Christ.

Now, like any soldier, the less training that he has, the less actual experience he has in warfare, the fewer rounds he has exchanged on the battlefield, well, the more vulnerability he will have to making errors, the greater his potential for making costly mistakes, even deadly mistakes.

It’s the same thing in the Christian life, and as I said, particularly at the outset of the Christian life, when we are the least mature, when we’re new to the truth, when we’re new to this thing called sanctification, that’s when old sins and old habits are most vexing to us, and temptations seem unduly strong. Falling into sin seems so easy and far too frequent.

And these are the things for a younger Christian, or maybe an immature Christian, these are the things that diminish assurance. These are the things that cause doubts to rise in our hearts about our salvation.

But like all soldiers who survive their errors and outlive their mistakes and failures, like all soldiers who learn, they learn to grow wary and watchful and wise in the fight. Same thing for young Christians, growing from immaturity to maturity.

God uses all this testing, all this trying, all the trial, all the affliction, all the suffering, even the sins that we fall into, God uses all this to give us experience, to drive us forward to increase in knowledge and understanding, to drive us forward, to learn wisdom and to develop skill in applying the truth to real life and its trials and tests and temptations.

With that said, it is in these times of testing, especially in the early years of the Christian life, it’s in these times that false teachers find their easiest targets. They prey upon those who struggle with sin. They capture those who are most blind to their immaturity and their pride. And sin is the point of vulnerability that all false teachers and all bad actors exploit.

And what their point is, what their purpose is, they hope to drive a wedge between the young Christian and his Christ. They hope to cause him to doubt the path that he has embarked on, doubt the salvation that he has, to peel him away from the truth and to lead him down the primrose path: shortcuts to sanctification, intoxicating ideas, mystical experiences that bolster the flesh in some kind of self-sufficiency and feed the pride.

Now, some of this testing exposes false converts. They may have professed Christ, but some of this testing is actually proving they’re not really with Christ. They’re not in Christ. And the end for a false convert is apostasy. You see him walk away, and then you know what his true colors are.

For a true Christian, though, for those who truly are saved, even though tempted, tried, sometimes failing, for a true Christian, they have to run the gauntlet of false teachers, they have to turn away from bad influences and turn to the truth continually.

All of this has a purpose. It is designed by God to further sanctification, to strengthen faith by testing faith, turning up the heat so that all the dross rises to the surface, and that’s swept away and what’s left is a pure, still gold that’s tested and tested by fire; deepens resolve to auger our hearts more deeply in the truth and to seal and secure our affections for Christ. That’s the point.

So Paul wants these Colossians, he wants us to have the right mindset and to prepare us for the sanctification process that he prescribes in Colossians 3:5 and following. He wants to give us a perspective, here, that sets us on the right foundation so that we will have the proper foundation, the proper hope, the proper grounding for fighting the good fight of sanctification.

For it’s in holiness that we grow strong in Christ. It’s in holiness that we become stable. It’s in holiness that we even strengthen our assurance, by holding fast to Christ that we see his work is finished, his ministry to us as ongoing and eventually as perfecting us in that holiness.

So what I’d like to do as we embark on to this next section is just kind of read Colossians 3:1-17, this big chunk, and just see what Paul is planning for us and why it is that we need this foundation in verses 1 to 4, which will be the the text we cover this morning. So starting in verse 1, chapter 3, we’ll read through verse 17.

“Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is manifested, then you also will be manifested with him in glory.

“Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. On account of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked when you were living in them, but now you also lay them all aside: wrath, anger, malice, slander, abusive speech from your mouth.

“Do not lie to one another since you put off the old man with its evil practices and have put on the new man, who is being renewed to a full knowledge, according to the image of the one who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free man. But Christ is all and in all.

“So as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and graciously forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord graciously forgave you, so also should you.

“Above all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

The more we press into this process of sanctification, we’re not only protected and inoculated from the influence of false teachers, but holiness deepens our satisfaction in Christ. That’s why I said earlier, man, sin is such a nuisance, isn’t it? Yeah, it’s a grave offense against God, our father, who loves us. Like, how could we sin against such a one? He’s called us with a gracious calling.

We also need to see sin as the impediment that it is, an impediment to the good life that he saved us to live, an impediment to the love that he’s chosen for us to enjoy, an obstacle to the rest that he’s provided for us and his son.

And that’s why we need to see in today’s text, Colossians 3:1-4, I’ll give you two points, here, we need to live by an entirely new mentality, verses 1 and 2, and that’s because of an entirely new reality in verses 3 and 4. So new mentality, new reality. That’s how the passage is divided up. We’re going to organize our outline that way. The mentality in verses 1 and 2, and then the underlying, undergirding reality in verses 3 and 4.

So here’s the first one if you want to write this down: the true Christian mentality, number one, the true Christian mentality. “Therefore, if you’ve been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth.”

So now that you’re raised up with Christ, he says, the true Christian mentality is known in what you seek after and what you think about. Now that you’ve been raised up with Christ, the true Christian mentality, a true Christian is known by what he seeks after and what he thinks about.

There are two verbs here, both in the imperative, two verbs, zeteo in verse one, which is to seek after, to search, to pursue. It implies a, a diligence, a push. It implies getting up and getting after it. Zeteo, it’s aggressive, it takes initiative, it’s active, it’s not passive. It doesn’t just sit and let it come to you. No, you go after it and go get it. That’s the zeteo idea.

Phroneo in verse 2, the word for mind, phren, the verb is built from that. But phroneo, mind, it means to, to ponder, to constantly fix the thought upon, to keep thinking about, reflect on, let it saturate your mind. It’s kind of like the Psalm 1 meditating-on-the-Word-of-God-day-and-night idea.

These two verbs, here, refer to the inner life of the Christian, refer to the thought life, and then that thinking that drives all desire and ambition and then action. So it’s the internal life of the individual.

You know what you’re seeking after because it’s what occupies your time, your energy, your money, your resources. It’s what you spend on, what you sacrifice for. It’s what you give up to get.

So think about it. What is your hierarchy of priorities? And when priorities are in tension with one another, which one gives way to the other? Which one emerges as the sacrosanct, sacred cow that will never be set apart for another? Because whatever you will not say, no, to, what gets the priority of your time and attention, that’s what you seek after. That’s what you pursue.

And unsurprisingly, what you seek after is directly related to what you think about, what occupies your thought life, what you meditate on, what you bring in, what you reflect on, what you, even, shows up in your dreams, what you dream about.

The mentality of the true Christian is one that is constantly, habitually, continually seeking after the things above and constantly, habitually thinking about the things that are above.

Now, perfectly? No. Flawlessly, without any deviation from the pattern? Well, no, obviously not. That’s why Paul has put these two verbs in the imperative form. He’s got to command this church to do that. We need the command. We need the reminder.

That’s why we come here every single Sunday, to have somebody standing up here and barking orders at you from the word of God. We need to be pushed and moved, and that’s totally understandable. Paul has to command because these Colossians are tempted to seek earthly things and to ponder earthly things. If they’re like that, it’s not a very far step to realize we’re like that, too. We realize that.

So Paul says if you’ve been raised up with Christ, seek and think differently than you have been seeking and thinking. He’s gently, once again, gently calling for the Colossians’ self-examination, here.

And especially among those who were listening to the false teaching, especially for those who were kind of drifting away from the simplicity of faith in Christ and submitting to this externalism and ritual rule-keeping. Those people in particular really need to check themselves.

I mean, if they really have been buried with Christ and are raised up with Christ, as Colossians 2:12 says, the clear evidence is that they will be seeking the things above. They’ll be setting their mind on the things above.

And why is that? Because above, that’s where Christ is. And Christ is he who won our salvation. Christ is he in whom we hope, he’s our very life, he’s our deepest longing, the one whom we all seek, who we think about, who we long for.

And so Paul knows this is what really is going to mark the dividing line between the false professor, the pretender of the faith, and the true Christian, in what he seeks after. And what he seeks after is driven by what he is thinking about.

We like to think about how Christ-focused our lives ought to be, how Christ-saturated our minds ought to be. If we notice, here, Paul does not say, keep seeking Christ or keep thinking about Christ. Though that’s implied and though that’s true, Paul’s command, even though Christ is most precious to us, Christ is most precious to Paul, notice that Paul did not say, If you’ve been raised up with Christ, keep seeking Christ, keep setting your mind on Christ.

It’s inferred, it’s implied, but he says, instead, “Keep seeking the things above.” He says, “Set your mind on the things above.” Paul is widening the scope of our seeking. He’s, he wants to broaden our thinking.

He’s not underplaying our ambition to seek Christ, to love Christ, to worship him, to be Christ-like. He’s not minimizing our fixation on him at all, in the slightest. But he is, in putting it this way, he is expanding the scope because he wants us not only to see Christ, but to see the significance of Christ, the fullness of Christ, all that explains Christ, all that Christ did, what he earned, what he bought, what he paid for, what he has saved us to. He wants us to see it all.

So this expression, “the things above,” is as broad as it can be, to include all things in the above category. But that said, Paul has used, by calling it, the things above, he’s using an expression that we have to admit is rather general and abstract.

So it may help us to discern a bit from the context what does Paul mean by the things above? What does he mean more specifically, more concretely? After all, if we’re going to seek after it, if we’re going to set our minds on it, specific and concrete is what we need. That’d be helpful.

So I’m going to give you three things I’m seeing, here, from the context that helps give us specificity and concreteness to the things above. First, write down the word, heavenly, the word, heavenly. The things above, refers to the realm of all that is heavenly. We see this in the contrast in verse 2. Paul contrasts, the things above with the things that are on earth.

And he’s not speaking, there, about the rocks, the trees, the animals on the earth. And it’s not a matter simply of the spiritual world as things above versus, the physical world, the things on the earth. That’s not the issue either.

The things that are on earth, translates a Greek phrase ta epi tes ges. Ta is a definite article, epi is a preposition, and tes ges, that’s the earth. That expression shows up again in the exact same form, words in the exact same order in verse 5 to describe the members of your earthly body. The members of the things on earth, ta epi tes ges. And notice the members that he speaks about are not physical things like hands and feet, eyes, nose, mouth. Following the expression, the members of your earthly body, it’s a list of sins, isn’t it?

Sin is the catastrophe of mankind that separated man from God and brought death into the world. ” Travis Allen

So the realm of the heavenly, in contrast to the earthly, is a place absent of any and all sin. In verse 5, it’s the place where there is no sexual immorality, no impurity, no evil desire, no greed, no idolatry. Can you imagine such a place? I think it’s hard for us to do because we live in the day-to-day, in that world that he commands against in verse 5. This place absent of any and all sin in verse 8 is the place where there is no wrath, no anger, no malice, no slander, no abusive speech.

By contrast, the heavenly is where, verse 12, there’s compassion all the time, kindness, humility, where humility dwells there with gentleness and grace and love, verse 14, which is the perfect bond of unity, pure love, so pure unity, never to be fractured and broken apart. It’s the place, verse 15, where Christ rules and the peace of Christ rules. It’s the place, verse 16, where the Word of Christ dwells richly.

You take all those concepts, kind of put them together in one pot, this has got to be the most delightful, emotionally moving, soul-stirring place. And there is music that resounds in this place of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, excellency of human speech set to the beauty of angelic music. This is what he wants us to be thinking about.

So by the things above, Paul does not point to the things spatially above us, as in up, as in the sky, beyond our own atmosphere, or where the planets of our solar system are orbiting, or where the stars are or other galaxies are hurtling through the universe.

It’s not what he’s talking about. Paul wants to seek after and to think about the spiritual realm, the heavenly world where Christ is right now, where he is. It’s the realm of God. It’s the place of the thoughts of the mind of God. It’s the service of the holy angels who dart about like flames of fire, immediately doing his will. It’s a place where no sin is, in which there is nothing contrary to his will at all. It’s a place where righteousness reigns, where blessing flows.

Then on the contrary, Paul says do not seek or think about the things that promote sin, or that feed temptation, or that distract us from the things above, or that entice us into sinning on account of those things. Colossians 3:6 says, “On account of those things, the wrath of God comes upon the earthbound and the sons of disobedience.” This wrath comes when Christ returns to execute God’s judgment and wrath.

And that leads to a second specific and concrete meaning of the things above. Second, you can write down the word, sovereignty. So first, what’s the things above? Heavenly. Second, what’s the things above? Write down the word sovereignty. The things above refer to the place of Christ’s sovereignty.

Paul refers to his sovereignty by identifying the exact place where Christ is, that is, at the right hand of God. This is yet another reference to the commonly quoted verse in the New Testament, the most commonly quoted verse in the New Testament from the Old Testament, Psalm 110, verse 1, one of many in the New Testament.

Psalm 110 verse 1, “Yahweh says to my Adonai,” that is “Yahweh,” the divine name, “says to my Lord, my Adonai.” David is speaking. He says, “Yahweh says to my Adonai, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies as a footstool for your feet.’”

Now besides the picture, there, of total and complete domination of all hostile forces, besides the putting down of the rebellion and executing all the rebels, Psalm 110, verse 1 is describing a co-regency between God the father with his son the Christ.

In ancient monarchies, the son of a reigning king could reign alongside of his father and do so for many years, and he reigned there as an apprentice to the throne that he would one day inherit. In Psalm 110, verse 1, David is calling this son who is a son of David, future son of David, he’s calling this son, my Lord. He’s acknowledging him as my Lord. He’s bowing to him as my Lord, as Yahweh is the one who awards him the kingdom, who acknowledges his right to reign. Yahweh bids him to wait until the time when all his enemies are bowing, prostrate, turned into his footrest.

Paul writes the same thing to the Corinthians, expanding the thought just a little bit, 1 Corinthians 15:24-26. He says, there, that Christ “will abolish all rule and all authority and all power, for he must reign until he’s put all his enemies under his feet.” Same concept, same idea. He says, there, that “the last enemy to be abolished is death itself.”

So again, by all, by the things above, Paul would have us seek after the things of Christ’s sovereignty, to think about the reality of his authority and his power, his absolute domination over kings and Lords and sin and destruction and demons and every vile thing, every hurtful thing.

We’re not to seek after lower power and authority, think about, worry about, be anxious over lesser powers, lesser authorities. Let your mind dwell on the omnipotent sovereignty of God and the omni-benevolent character of his rule. Omni-benevolent, just meaning all good character of his rule, which we are going to enjoy literally for an entire millennium, 1,000 years of Christ reigning from David’s throne in Jerusalem.

His righteous governance, according to Isaiah 9:6, it’s going to cause the land to blossom and to bloom and to thrive and to prosper. Put no hope in human princes. Do not worry about elections and results and polls. Don’t worry about the data. Put no hope in human princes. Put all your hope in the King of kings and the Lord of lords, because he is sovereign, and he has conquered, and he has won.

Whatever troubles you’re going through in life, so brief, even if you live another hundred years. I could almost guarantee none of you will. Another hundred years on this earth, it’s a drop in a drop of the ocean of time that Christ reigns.

So by the things above, Paul means seek after the heavenly, seek after Christ’s sovereignty. Think about the heavenly. Think about his sovereignty. Let it fill your heart with satisfaction and peace and joy.

And then to be specific and concrete, to know exactly what to think about, third, write down the word ministry, heavenly sovereignty, and then the word ministry, as in the things above refers to the place of Christ’s ongoing ministry to his people.

It’s noteworthy, here, that Paul is taking a moment, here, to set some perspective, fixing his readers’ attention on Christ, who’s seated at the right hand of God, and he does so right in the middle of a context about the desire to be sanctified from sins.

Sins, as I said, trouble us. They are a nuisance. They keep us from what we really long for. They weaken us. They distract us. And the false teachers, while they said their teaching was valuable to mitigate against fleshly indulgence, Colossians 2:23, Paul said, no, they’re worthless, futile. Don’t listen to bad doctrine. It’s not going to help you get any way forward at all. It’s actually going to take you in reverse.

Then after the perspective that Paul sets, here, in Colossians 3:1-4, Paul wants them to start right away to kill sinfulness, verse 5, to put off actual sins, verses 8 and 9. He says, Get after it! You’ve got the power, you’ve got the ability, you’ve got a Christ who saved you, who won your salvation. He’s given you of his Holy Spirit. You’ve got a new nature, you’ve got the powerful Word of God. Get after it! There’s no sin that can stand against God and his power. Get after it!

This picture of Christ seated at the right hand of God, it’s not only about Christ’s sovereign power to subdue all his enemies. It’s also about Christ’s high-priestly ministry to care for and show mercy for his own people, who are tempted and tried and sometimes failing.

The author of Hebrews uses the same language of Christ seated at the right hand of God in Hebrews 1:3, and he draws this connection to Christ’s ongoing ministry, a high-priestly ministry of propitiation and then prayer; major proof of the superiority of Christ over the old covenant system.

It says in Hebrews 1:3, “Having accomplished cleansing for sins.” That’s everything. Propitiation, satisfying the wrath of an angry deity; expiation, removing our sins as far as the east is from the west.

“Having accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.” Completed work, new phase of ministry. He’s done away with the old, and now he’s into the new and it’s mercy, compassion, prayer, strength, grace for all of our times of need.

The high-priestly ministry of Jesus Christ, it’s superiority over the entire Mosaic priestly system, indeed what the entire Mosaic system pointed to. That’s the chief theme and burden of the pastoral exhortation in Hebrews. It’s what all Christians need every single moment, every single day. This is so deeply encouraging, that he’s seated at the right hand of God.

So does that help us to get maybe a little bit better specificity, greater clarity, concreteness? What Paul means by the things above, taking these cues from the context, is the heavenly realm where God dwells, 1 Timothy 6:16, “where he dwells in unapproachable light.”

So the absence of sin, the home of holiness and purity, the realm of righteousness, joy, love, peace, perfection: Christ is there. He’s there right now. He’s there in resurrection glory. He ascended to the right hand of the father to rule and reign in sovereignty and to minister to us in his mercy, in the mercy of God.

And by the way, Christ is there right now ministering to us currently, and he’s doing so in a human body, perfect, not being perfected, but perfect, glorified. He is there in a state of power and honor and glory. His body is no longer in a state of weakness and humiliation. His body is there in resurrection glory, power, new body.

He’s there with God the father, and he’s dwelling with the father in unapproachable light, a light that no man has seen or can see. And yet Jesus Christ, the God-man, he is there and he’s seeing what no man has ever seen or ever could see. He sees the father’s glory, and he intends to share it with us.

We’re going to have more to say about that in just a few minutes, but first, stop and think about this section and think about what it is you most often seek after. What do you live for? What do you spend your time and energy on?

If the mentality of a true Christian is marked by what he seeks after and what he thinks about, ask yourself, is it the things above, or is it the things below? What’s on your mind? What do you live for? How are you spending your time?

Is Bible reading and prayer something you check off your list of tasks, or is it more like the best part of your day? Is it that which you cannot wait to get to and to get back to when you leave it? Is it what you wish you had even more time for, more hours in the day for? Is it the first thing you do? Is it the last thing you do?

Let’s acknowledge it, admit it. The things on earth, the sports and entertainment, news and politics, text messages that interrupt us all the time, intrude into our lives, take our attention, things that flow constantly to us, kind of like IV fluid going through the veins of our minds; all this information, expectations, pressures that come from others who tried to set the agenda for us, who tell us what to seek after, what’s important, what to think about.

Man, our thoughts are so quickly turned from heavenly things back down to earth, as if we’re bound by these invisible chains anchored into the mundane and the banal and the trivial. We ache sometimes, don’t we, at how inconsistent we can be. No wonder we find ourselves so susceptible to sin, especially when trials come. We can be so easily anxious and fearful and worried, perplexed, troubled.

 Jesus said in Matthew 6:25, “‘Do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?’” Yeah, I like to think so. Verse 27, “‘Which of you by worrying can add a single cubit to his lifespan?’”

If we’d only spend more time thinking about how our God feeds the birds of the air in all their beauty and variety, so many birds. If you walk through natural spaces here in Colorado, you can’t count the number of varieties of birds that there are out there. And he clothes them and feeds them.

He clothes the lilies of the field. How many grasses that we pass over and run over and stomp on? If we get down on our hands and knees and look at them, we realize, wow, even Solomon and all his glory with all his wealth, he didn’t eat like the birds do, and he didn’t dress like the flowers do.

If we’d only spend more time thinking about these things, how our faith would wax strong. We would realize “‘your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Therefore seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,’” Matthew 6:33, “‘and all these things be added to you as well.’” Don’t sweat it.

Paul’s making really the same point here in Colossians 3:1-2. He’s calling us Christians to be Christians, indeed, not to just give lip service to it, but to give ourselves to learning and studying and deepening in the truth.

He’s calling us Christians to be so shaped by divine truth that truth sets the agenda for us, not the pretty lies, not the alluring distractions, not the temporal pressures of the world, not the pleasure of the company of people, but truth, true truth, sanctifying truth, saving truth.

Even the deepest anxieties of the soul, fears about forces beyond our control, whether those forces are natural or spiritual, anxieties over spiritual things, perplexities over troubling sins, over giving into temptations, caving into falling into sins, these, too, all answered by what Paul is commanding us to do here. “If you’ve been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”

His mission success benefits you. His faithfulness won the field, secured your full salvation. His victory is your victory. And by his accomplishment, you rest assured. You’re strong. And if you doubt that at all, God is telling you, right there, that your savior is right now seated at God’s right hand. And from that place he subdues all his enemies; and from there he keeps serving as your great and merciful high priest. As J. B. Lightfoot says, “You must not only seek heaven, you must also think heaven.”

So when accusations come, whether they come from others, scorning human beings, false teachers, people with bad intent, or the accusations could come from your own conscience, confess your sin if you need to, and then set your mind on things above. Reflect on what God has accomplished for you in Christ. Rejoice in gratitude, because this is your reality.

Reality is the subject of our second point, number two, the true Christian reality. Number two, the true Christian reality. The mentality of the true Christian is grounded in a reality about the true Christian, something God has done for the Christian and something he will yet do for the Christian. That’s the reality: what God has done for the Christian, what he yet will do for the Christian.

And we see those in the passive-voice verbs of verses 3 to 4, “For you died and your life has been hidden,” notice the passive voice, “has been hidden with Christ in God. And then when Christ who is our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested,” passive voice again, “you will be manifested with him in glory.”

Now in verse 3, Paul is again, here, he’s bolstering the Colossians. He wants to help them stand against the charges of the false teachers. They’re saying things like this: You Christians, it’s a quaint, you know, set of doctrines you have about the, you know, the dying Messiah in Jerusalem. That’s great. Rose, risen from the dead. We get the rumors and stuff like, it’s awesome. You guys have that. It’s good for you.

But look at you, really. You’re nothing special. I mean, you look like I do. You walk like everybody else does. You live mundane lives. In fact, your own Apostle commands you to live quiet lives and do hard work, work with your hands, share with other people.

That’s not really impressive. We have our trade guilds that, man, we feed the hungry. We’ve got homeless rehabilitation programs. We have programs that take care of the city. Look at these building projects. We funded that. The great goddess Diana funded that project. You’re unremarkable, really. Your religion’s pretty, let’s admit it, unimpressive. You’ve got no great rituals. You’ve got no great things.

We’ve heard those kind of refrains, haven’t we? Always pressing us into some other mold of social justice, or action, or trying to build big, huge buildings by taking the money of the people and turning it into Saint Paul’s Basilica or Saint Peter’s Basilica or something like that.

In contrast, false teachers, false religionists, pretenders, they try to parade before you a much more remarkable religion. They try to brag about their deeds. They try to flaunt that they are on an inside track to true spirituality and they, Paul says, Colossians 2:18, really what they’re doing is puffing themselves up, “delighting in self-abasement, the worship of angels.”

They go on in detail about visions they’ve seen, or projects they’ve contributed to, or things they’ve funded, or all that they’ve done, or the number of people who pay attention to them, or are fans or followers on social media or money that they have.

It all seems so impressive, doesn’t it? But since they have no new life abiding in them, there’s no true spirituality. There’s no spiritual circumcision, Colossians 2:11. There’s no new birth. There’s no regeneration, there’s no Holy Spirit to remove the old nature, that created a new heart and gave them a new spirit and granted them a new nature to dwell within them.

So these false pretenders have nothing but what they can manufacture in the flesh, nothing but what they can parade before you that’s visible, that’s countable, nothing but the data that they can show. So in order to draw attention to themselves and to make bad doctrine look good, these pretenders puff themselves up and they flaunt a false spirituality like peacocks. They scorn true Christians for being unremarkable and unimproved and unimpressive.

And Paul says in verse 3, “Pay them no mind.” Just turn it off. Turn off those voices. Since you’ve died, you’re dead to them, too. Your ears don’t work anymore for that stuff. So don’t pretend that they do. Don’t listen to it. You are now as Christ is and as he is hidden from natural sight, so are you.

Those who judge with natural perception only, those who scrutinize and then criticize with fleshly hearts and by worldly standards, they will do nothing but come to wrong judgments. As the world has done and continues to do with Christ, so it will do with you.

Remember, after Christ walked out of the tomb, he didn’t march back into the temple complex to prove himself to everybody. He didn’t barge into the Sanhedrin meeting and flaunt his resurrection. Could have, but as John 2:24 says, “Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to men, for he knew all men.” He didn’t need the witness of men, natural men. He appeared to whom? To his own, and to them alone, only.

The mentality of the true Christian is one that is constantly, habitually, continually seeking after the things above. ” Travis Allen

Why is that? Because as 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them.” He has not the ability because spiritual things are only examined and appraised and judged rightly spiritually, by those who have the Spirit.

So God kept his resurrected, glorified Christ hidden from the natural eyes of natural men, who do not have the Spirit of God, who can do nothing but make natural judgments because they reason from unbelief. The current hiddenness of Christ from the world, it’s a judgment on the world. It’s a judgment against unbelief.

The resurrected glorified Christ, listen, beloved, it should make you feel so privileged, special, loved. The resurrected, glorified Christ, he is the exclusive gift of God to you, not to the world, not to kings and those who are in authority, but to you, his redeemed people.

And this Christ is the most precious treasure of the redeemed in this life and in the next. The redeemed have the exclusive privilege not only to be like him now, hidden as he is, but soon to become like him.

Since Christ our forerunner has died, this is what Paul teaches us in chapter 2, we’ve also died in him. And since his resurrection life is hidden from the world, so also is ours. But Christ will return one day, and when he does, his resurrection glory will be manifest to all. And when that happens, we will share in his glory, a glory that will be seen by all, that will amaze all, that will cause “every knee to bow and every tongue to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.”

So who we are now, what we are, our likeness to Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, who we love and worship, who we seek and we serve, listen, it’s all going to be manifested in due time.

We read earlier in the service in Philippians 3:20, that as citizens of a heavenly kingdom, we seek and we think about, it says there, “for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory.”

Human body in weakness and frailty, a humble state, transformed and conformed into the body, the human body of his current glory, “by his working through which he’s able even to subject all things to himself.”

“So as we died with Christ,” Colossians 2:12, “we’re also raised up with Christ.” It shows us that we’re united to him spiritually, united to him actually, really. Our life is united to his life. We’re in the union with him by the Spirit, and so our life is hidden with his life. If his life is hidden, so is ours. We’re tucked away with him who’s also hidden, who is seated at the right hand of the father. That’s where we are in reality, in spiritual, spiritual reality.

So it’s when he returns, bodily, it’s when his blinding glory is manifested, he will come to astound the entire world. 2 Thessalonians 2:10 says, “He comes to be glorified in his saints on that day,” that’s us, “and to be marveled at among all who have believed.” It’s while we are marveling at him that we’re to be glorified. It’s while we’re marveling at him, that we are transformed from our humble state into the state of his glory, so that as he is now, we are to become.

 As his resurrected, glorified body is right now, so our body is to become no longer hidden but manifested, revealed no longer in weakness and humiliation, but in power and strength and glory. The Apostle John, you can turn over to 1 John, follow me there if you’d like to, the Apostle John makes kind of the same point in his own way that Paul is making, here. And he, too, John, is also dealing with characteristics of false teachers.

He’s kind of dealing in his area with these churches in Ephesus, again, a hundred miles to the east of where Paul is writing this letter to, of Colossae in the Lycus Valley. A hundred miles to the west is Ephesus.

And John, decades later, he’s dealing with the same kind of troubling doctrines of these same kinds of false teachers. They’re troubling the Ephesian church decades later. And he says in 1 John, chapter 2, end of the chapter, verse 28, “Now little children, abide in him so that when he’s manifested, we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone also who does righteousness has been born of him.”

It’s kind of his way to say, Keep seeking the things above, keep thinking about the things above, keep practicing righteousness, keep pursuing him. So “keep practicing righteousness,” verse 29, is “keep seeking the things above” of Colossians 3:1. “Abide in him,” 1 John 2:28, is “set your mind on things above,” Colossians 3:2.

And then John says this, look at chapter 3, verse 1, “See, see how great a love the Father has given to us that we would be called children of God, and,” it’s not only what we’re called, it’s not just a nominal thing, “and so we are. And for this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know him.”

Again, if Christ is hidden, we’re also hidden. If they can’t see him clearly, they can’t see us clearly. “We are truly children of God, and the world did not know us, just as the world did not know him.” Why? “Because our life has been hidden with Christ in God.”

And yet, verse 2, chapter 3, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been manifested as yet what we will be. We know that when He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is.” It’s what Jesus said in the beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart,” Matthew 5:8, “for they shall see God.”

And John, he then explains how this comes to be. The physical sight of Christ in his glory will give us spiritual sight of God. John Owen says, “Then Christ in all his glory shall be continually before us. The eyes of our understanding shall be so gloriously illuminated, we shall be able steadily to behold and comprehend that glory.”

Can you imagine it, beloved? For one, I can’t. All I’ve known is this sinful world. I see little glimpses of good things. I’m just going to take those glimpses and take these things I know from Scripture and magnify them and know it’s eternally greater.

We’ll see Jesus Christ, then, and we’ll see him through physical eyes, the physical eyes that have been glorified, that are set in resurrected sockets, on resurrected heads, in resurrected bodies. And it’s then we shall behold in his face and perceive with spiritual sight the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 4:6. What a day! And you know what? It’s not just a day. Day, there, is a metonymy for eternity. It never changes, only deepens, broadens, widens.

We mentioned earlier that Jesus Christ, in the presence of God the father at his right hand, a divine nature joined to a human nature, Jesus is able to see God even though God dwells in unapproachable light. The two natures of Christ, being distinct and unmixed, those two natures are able to communicate freely, the divine with the human and the human with the divine, so that what his divine nature sees and knows, that is, the invisible God, is freely and perfectly conveyed to his human nature.

And you know what? Because we share humanity with him and he shares humanity with us, what his human nature sees and knows is conveyed to us. As our perfect mediator, he brings us into that heavenly, beatific vision.

Wilhelmus à Brakel puts it this way, “God cannot be seen with physical eyes, for he is the invisible one,” 1 Timothy 6:16, Hebrews 11:27. “The Lord Jesus, according to the body, will be seen with our physical eyes with overwhelming joy and love by all the citizens of heaven. Believers will see Jesus in his glory, and they will speak with him, and he will speak with them face to face, and God will be seen with the enlightened eyes of the understanding.”

It’s exactly what Jesus prayed for in his high-priestly prayer in John 17. It’s what he sought from the father, and he sought it for us all along. This is what he says, “‘Father,’” John 17:24, “‘Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, which You’ve given to Me. For You loved Me from before the foundation of the world.’”

“I want for them, and I’ve done all that I’ve done for them, for your will, according to your plan and your decree. I’ve pursued it. I’ve accomplished it, and I long for it. I want it and I’m praying for it. And I, by your strength and your will, Father, and by the power of the Spirit, I will make it happen.”

You need to see this as an accomplished thing. To see Christ in his glory is to see God. Philip said, “‘Show us the Father and that’s enough for us.’” “‘Oh, Philip,’” pats him on the head, “‘if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.’” To see Christ and his glory is to see God, to behold God’s love for Christ and his love for us. To see God is to love God, and that’s to share in the divine nature.

Francis Turriten says, “Vision begets love.” I love this line. God cannot be seen without being loved. Isn’t that true? He goes on to say, “Love draws joy after it because God cannot be possessed without filling us with joy.” You see the connection between sight and love and joy? It’s what he’s secured for us. It’s a done deal. Now, it’s just the waiting.

This is reality for every true Christian, and it’s foundational for all that truly is, what God decreed, all that he accomplished in Christ Jesus. And so Paul’s bottom line message for the Colossians and for us: This is real reality. So set your mentality accordingly, and then go out and live it. “Keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, and set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth.” There is nothing for you on earth, so leave it behind as you contemplate all that lies ahead, because that’s reality.

Again, à Brakel, Wilhelmus à Brakel says, and he’s encouraging this kind of heavenly mindedness, he suggests that you “call to mind all that you have ever beheld of God. Call that to mind. Call to mind all the joy and the peace you’ve ever tasted, all the union and communion with God that you’ve ever enjoyed, all the being lifted heavenward that you’ve ever experienced.

“And then add all the enrapturing sermons you’ve ever heard and all that others have ever shared with you of their experiences, and all the love you’ve ever perceived in the gathering of saints. And consider all of this collectively, and then compare these minute rays of light to the joy and bliss we’ll enjoy in the state of perfection.”

Beloved Christian, since this is reality, let these truths go deep into your heart. Let them saturate your thinking. Let them dominate your mind. Let truth ground your reasoning and seal your assurance and fill you with joy and gratitude. And then, beloved Christian, go live differently. Go live differently and follow the way of the true Christian.

Remember what Paul says in verses 3 to 4. He’s giving, there, an explanation, he’s providing a reason, a foundation for what he has said and commanded in verses 1 and 2. So when I say go live differently, I mean rather than rooting through the rubble of a fallen, destroyed world to find pretty trinkets, as if you’re playing in a nuclear wasteland, what à Brakel refers to as “these minute rays of light” that you receive in the fellowship of the saints, that you hear in preaching, that you have in your union and communion with God in Bible study, and the rich times of fellowship you have in prayer, and the the love that you give and receive with other saints, “these minute rays of light,” follow those rays upward to their source, and do it continually.

Live that way. Set down the shiny, glowing stuff of the world. Realize that glow comes from decay. You’re playing with nuclear waste, and it’s decaying and so it’s glowing. That’s what gives off that shiny allurement. Put it down. It’s toxic to you.

Learn to prize and esteem and value what Christ has purchased for you with his own blood. Set your heart’s affections and aim the ambitions of your life and your will upward at the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. “Since Christ is your life,” Paul says, “seek those things.” Set your mind on those things.

Or in the language of John, the Apostle of love, 1 John 3:2-3, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not been manifested as yet what we will be. We know that when he’s manifested, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is, and everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”

When we return next week, we’re going to take this foundation and we’re going to move from it. We’re going to build off of it. We’re going to learn how the mentality of the true Christian drives us to mortify actual sins so that we learn to work out this reality in a very practical way. For now, let’s pray.

Oh, Father, what great things you have done for us. And even what we have talked about today and discovered today and learned and rejoiced in today is just but a brief glimpse, just a, a minute ray of this glorious future that’s ours in Christ.

But we do have Bibles, and you have given us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to understand and believe. You’ve given us the Spirit as our indwelling truth teacher to illuminate the truth to us and to motivate us and drive us forward and reveal where we need to confess and forsake sin and sinful thinking and sinful priorities and ways of living, where we need to tune out the world and to tune in to what you teach in your Word. We pray that you would help us to do that, to live for you, to live differently and enjoy the salvation that you have purchased for us in Christ.

Father, thank you for your kindness to us. Thank you for showing us mercy, because that’s all we can cry out for is mercy. We have no just reward in us. There’s no reason why you should be favorable to us. It’s just because you are compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness. Thank you for loving us in Christ. Thank you for giving us such a wonderful Savior. And thank you for uniting us to you by the Spirit in him, for uniting us to you so that we can call you Father and Lord and King and Savior. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Psalm 46

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Well, good morning, everyone, I have the joy and privilege of opening God’s word with you again and if you were not here last week, we started really a two-part message on this passage of Scripture out of 2 Corinthians and it’s a passage that reminds us of God’s character and that he is a God of all comfort. He is the source of all comfort when we are afflicted with any kind of trial.

And if you’re not there already in your copy of God’s Word, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and we’ll read the passage and just catch everyone up who may not have heard the message last week. But this is a deeply, deeply encouraging passage of Scripture. It is meant to provide comfort or it is meant to strengthen the weak, to bind up the broken hearted, to give spiritual strength to those who need it.

And right now there are just a lot of people in our church who, who do need that strengthening and that binding up and lifting up. And so that’s what we hope to accomplish in this sermon this morning. But 2 Corinthians chapter 1, and I’m going to read verses 3 through 7. Paul writes to the Corinthians and he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction. So that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

“For just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort which is working in your perseverance in the same sufferings which we also suffer. And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are shares of our comfort.”

We tend to think of comfort in mere physical terms. We are maybe more materialistic than we would like to admit. That is to say, we act and think in such a way as to ignore the spiritual aspect of our being, the spiritual life within us and many people seek physical comfort to the detriment of their souls. But we find in this passage that God cares deeply for our comfort, and he considers both the physical and the spiritual aspect of our being.

God by no means wants us to be miserable. He is not the God of misery. He is the God of all comfort. But he wants his children to come to him and find a deep and satisfying and satiating comfort that lasts and endures. And he wants those who receive comfort to be conduits, then, to take that comfort to others, and then he wants us all to enjoy the fruit of that ministry. Those are really the three points for this message. But let me give them to you succinctly.

The three points are the source, and the purpose, and the result. That’s maybe an exegetical outline. A homiletical outline is the spring of comfort, the source, the spring of comfort, the purpose point two or the conduit of comfort, and then point three, the result, the fountain of comfort. And we started point one last time and we cut it off in order to go into communion, but we’ll jump back into that.

 In point one, look at verse 3 again, out of 1 Corinthians chapter or 2 Corinthians chapter 1, “Blessed be the,” God of the, “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.” God is the God of all comfort that is his essence. All true comfort comes from God, and it says in verse 4, “He is the God who comforts us in all our afflictions.” Several commentators that I read, they argued that the afflictions that Paul is talking about here, the promises of God’s comfort, it’s really only for those afflictions that we suffer for his name’s sake, or that is to say, specifically for persecution, because of Christ, or as Peter puts it, when we suffer for doing good rather than evil.

However, I don’t think Paul is that specific here and really that goes against the truth of the gospel. We know that even when we sin, God in the gospel bring us great comfort. God wants to comfort us when we sin and even when we are enduring painful consequences because of our sin. God doesn’t want us to languish in those things. He wants us to come to him and find true comfort for our souls.

Paul’s vague here, and I think that’s for a reason. I think he’s referring to any affliction whatsoever that we find ourselves in, whether persecution for the sake of Christ or suffering consequences of sin, or really anything in between those two things. It’s unqualified in the text for a reason. If we need comfort in any affliction, even if it’s a horrible situation that we got ourselves into, God is the God of comfort. He is the source of any comfort that we’re going to find, and we need to go to him.

God is the source, and just as our afflictions are varied and many, so are the streams of his comfort that we find comfort in. If we are to enjoy the full force of God’s comfort, we need to tap into all of these streams that flow to us in order to be fully comforted. Last time we started looking at ten different streams of comfort that we can find sourced in God, that we can tap into to find comfort.

And let me just briefly remind you of the seven we covered last time, and then we’ll cover the rest today. So first, truth. Unbelievers, they are comforted by lies, at least temporarily, that is to say, it’s when they’re comforted by unbelievers saying, oh, it’s not really your fault, you’re not responsible for this, you couldn’t help yourself, and so on and so forth. Unbelievers are temporarily comforted by those things, but it’s a fading comfort. But believers, they’re never really truly comforted by that.

Believers are comforted by truth and reality and that is found in God’s Word. So first, we are comforted by truth. Second, or sub-point B, if you were taking notes, protection, we talked about Psalm 23. When we are afraid, we can kind of find comfort in the fact that the Almighty God of the universe is our Good Shepherd and protector. No enemy can overpower him and get to us. We can find great comfort in his protection when we are in fear.

Third: restoration, when we have maybe lost position or health or relationships or the like, we can find comfort in the restoration that we have in Christ. We’ve been restored to God in the gospel, but we will eventually fully and finally be fully restored in body and soul, in Christ, in heaven; glorified with Christ, set free from all the afflictions that we endure now. We can find great comfort in that.

Fourth, in God’s justice. We find comfort and justice first and foremost when we think of the joyous thought that God’s justice for our sins has been satisfied in Christ as our propitiatory sacrifice. All of our sins have been dealt with on the cross. Justice has been satisfied. We find comfort in justice as well when we struggle with sin committed against us or against others that we love. People sin egregiously against other people and some people seem to get away with it on this earth. We find comfort in God’s justice that those who sin and do not repent, they will receive judgment and justice fully and finally by from God.

Fifth: peace, we find comfort in the peace we have. We find comfort in the objective peace we have with God in the gospel, but we also find comfort in the future peace we’ll have in heaven and also the subjective peace we have now with one another as we live together in this society of the church. We find great comfort in the the peace we have in the relationships that we have, even if we do not find such peace in our relationships with unbelievers.

Sixth: Faithfulness, when we doubt or we question whether God will come through on his promises, we feel wrongly about our affliction. Maybe we even doubt if God cares. We can be reminded that just as God was faithful to Abraham to bring about all of his promises to him, so he will be to us, his children. He will be faithful to us. This is a comfort to us. We have so many examples of this in scripture. Most people are probably familiar with Jeremiah 29:11. It’s probably one of the most quoted verses, “For I know the plans I have for you declares Yahweh plans for peace and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.”

God said that to Jeremiah the prophet to tell the people, and he, he had Jeremiah tell the people that not too long before God brought the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem and take Israel into captivity. God was essentially front loading some comfort for Israel, reminding them of his faithfulness. He had plans for them, even if his plans for them looked very different than the plans that they had imagined for themselves. God is faithful to his people, and regardless of the afflictions that we endure, He will be faithful to us, even if we don’t feel like it, and even if we’re not faithful to him, He is faithful to us.

Seventh sub-point G: Redemption, when we are tempted to think in our affliction that God has given us a burden too heavy to bear, we can be comforted when we remind ourselves of what we have been spared from. We deserved to be crushed by God for our sins, eternally punished, yet he spared us from that, and whatever burden he has given us instead, is infinitely more bearable than eternal suffering in hell. We can renew our mind with this truth of God’s redemption of us and it will strengthen us in whatever affliction we are enduring.

Eighth, and this is where we get into a few new points. Sub-point H: Freedom, if you would turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 61. Isaiah chapter 61, we find the Lord talking about comforting Israel and in that context, he talks about the freedom, those who are downcast, really enslaved. He talks about the freedom that they receive and the comfort of that. Isaiah chapter 61, I’m going to read verses 1 through 3. So Yahweh speaks through Isaiah the prophet, “The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is upon me Because Yahweh has anointed me.”

You’ll, you’ll notice the often quoted in the New Testament verse, “To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim release to captives And freedom to prisoners, To proclaim the favorable year of Yahweh And the day of vengeance of our God, To comfort all who mourn, To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a headdress instead of ashes, The oil of rejoicing instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead the spirit of fainting. So they will be called the oaks of righteousness, The planting of Yahweh, that He may show forth His beautiful glory.”

 So those who have been redeemed by Christ, they have also been set free from the power of sin, the worst affliction and the worst tormentor. We no longer have to obey sin. We no longer have to obey its lusts. And when we are as Christians struggling to mortify sin in our life, maybe we feel we’re downcast because we feel as if we can’t overcome this sin. We can be comforted with this fact that if Christ has redeemed us, we have been set free and we are free indeed. We do not have to obey its lusts.

Christ has set us free, just as Isaiah prophesied of being set free, lifting up the binding up the broken heart, proclaiming release to the captives. This is a great comfort to us. It strengthens weak knees. It lifts up the downcast struggling in sin. Christ has set us free from the power of sin, beloved. So let us be free indeed and walk in that and find comfort in that.

Ninth and this one flows from this as well. If you’re taking notes and you did sub-points in letters, this is letter I: Repentance, we can see it in this chapter as well where Isaiah talks about comforting those who mourn. But flip over to the next book in Jeremiah to chapter 31. We see this as well. And in this chapter really in some of the other ones that we read through last week. But we ought to also find great comfort in our repentance.

Jeremiah 31, I’ll begin in verse 10. Just read through a few verses. Jeremiah speaking to the people, he says, “Hear the word of Yahweh, O nations, And declare in the coastlands far away,” that that means to all the Gentiles, to us, “and say, ‘He who dispersed Israel will gather him And keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’ For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob And redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

“‘They will come and sing for joy in the height of Zion, And they will be radiant over the goodness of Yahweh- Over the grain and the new wine and the oil, And over the young and the flock and the herd; And their soul will be like a watered garden, And they will never waste away again. Then the virgin will be glad in the dance, And the young men and the old, together, For I will turn their mourning into joy And will comfort them and give them gladness for their sorrow. I will fill the soul of the priests with richness, And My people will be satisfied with My goodness,’ declares Yahweh.”

 One day Israel is going to look upon the savior that she crucified, and they will mourn. We have the same promise from God that Jeremiah gave them here, that God will turn all true mourning into joy. All true repentance he will comfort. Several months ago, we went through Matthew chapter 5, verse 4, which most of you are probably familiar with. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Those who genuinely mourn over their sin and work out repentance in their life, they are comforted.

When you sin, when you then confess and seek forgiveness, and you remind yourself that you have been fully and finally forgiven in Christ. You seek to walk in the freedom that you have in Christ. You work out repentance in your life, this ought to bring you great, great comfort. As you work out repentance and you grow in the fruit of the Spirit, you find great comfort in this, that you truly are his child. You’re not overcome by sin. You truly are free from sin and when you walk in that, that brings a great comfort into your life.

This leads us to the tenth point, sub-point J: Jealousy. Jealousy is often conflated with covetousness. Covetousness is wanting what someone else has. Biblically, jealousy means to be protective of what is one’s own. Flip over to Zechariah, right before the New Testament. Zechariah chapter 1, I was reading with my family just the other day in family devotions out of Deuteronomy and we were reading chapter 4 and we came to verse 24 that says, “And Yahweh, your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”

 And when we read that one of my kids was like, What? Kind of just taken aback at that; perplexed, God’s jealous? What? Yes, God is a jealous God. He is protective of what is his, and that is the comforting truth we find here in Zechariah 1 verses 12 to 17 says, “Then the angel of Yahweh answered and said, ‘O Yahweh of hosts, how long will you have no compassion for Jerusalem in the cities of Judah, with which you have been indignant these 70 years?’

“Yahweh answered the angel who was speaking with me with good words, comforting words. So the Angel who was speaking with me said to me, ‘Call out, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. But I am very wrathful with the nations who are at ease; for I was only a little wrathful, but they helped increase the calamity.”

“Therefore, thus says Yahweh, “I will return to Jerusalem with compassion; My house will be built in it,” declares Yahweh of hosts, “and a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem.’” Again calling out, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “My cities will again overflow with good, and Yahweh will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.”’”

 If you are God’s child, he is jealous for you, and that means he will never let you go as you work out repentance and all these other avenues of comfort we’ve talked about. You can be confident that you are his, and if you are his, you can be confident that God is jealous for you and that means he will never let you go, just like he would never let Israel go.

You can write this just as a cross reference down. We don’t have time to look at it this morning, but Romans 8:31 to 39 just kind of outlines some blessed truths there. We are his and nothing can separate us from his love. He will keep you until the last day. You are his and he is yours. As Zechariah put it there. These are good and comforting words. And as I mentioned last week, as we transitioned to Communion, you can flip back to 2 Corinthians.

But as I mentioned last week, as we transition to communion, all of these things find their fulfillment in Christ. All of these things that we looked at in the Old Testament culminate in Christ. In Luke chapter 2, when Jesus’s parents came to the temple to dedicate him, Simeon rejoiced and called Jesus the comfort of Israel. And this really brings us to our bonus eleventh point here that I didn’t tell you about last week, kind of briefly mentioned it, but God’s presence is a great comfort to us.

That is to say, when it comes to the ministry of being there, Jesus showed up like nobody else. John begins his gospel by talking about the Word being God, and then he talks about “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God, a very God, came and dwelt among us. He was present with us as Jesus ministered. He was among the people, rubbing shoulders with the people. He was touching and healing those who really, they had diseases that made them unclean, and they couldn’t even be, according to the law, touched by other people, no physical comfort from anyone. But Jesus reached out and touched them and comforted people like no one could.

If you are God’s child, he is jealous for you, and that means he will never let you go as you work out repentance and all these other avenues of comfort we’ve talked about.” Bret Hastings

Jesus manifest all of the God of comfort from the Old Testament in coming and being here present to comfort people, teaching his disciples how to do this. The God of all comfort brought comfort to his people by personally showing up and dwelling among his people, bringing truth in the gospel. And when Jesus was about to depart this earth, he told his disciples that he was going to go away. That brought them deep sorrow. But then Jesus told this to them to comfort them. He says, “But I will tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away,” the parakletos or the comforter or the Holy Spirit, he’s talking about the Holy Spirit. “For if I do not go away, the comforter will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.”

So not only do we have Jesus with us, among us, did the disciples there, but now, as Jesus had departed and ascended in glory, the disciples and now we have ever present with us the Holy Spirit inside of us as a seal of our redemption, that he might administer this comfort to each of our hearts at the appropriate times. We are so blessed, beloved, all of these are different avenues of God’s comfort that we can dwell on, meditate on, renew our minds in the God brings us comfort through. But God does not comfort you, solely so you can be comfortable.

His comfort is not meant to be just a source that flows into you, to be a cistern, to be collected and stored and enjoyed only by you. That brings us to our second point, the purpose, the conduit of comfort. Look at verse 4 in 2 Corinthians chapter 1. “So God,” Paul says, “comforts us in all our afflictions so that, the purpose there that, “we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with a comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

 The purpose, Paul states for our affliction and receiving comfort is so that, as we are afflicted and comforted, we will be able to comfort those who are also in any affliction with the same comfort that we have received. So the purpose of affliction in the life of the believer is to turn us into a conduit that can then bring comfort to other Christians. We receive that comfort. We absorb that comfort as it passes through us onto other people who need it as well.

But we are not to be beloved cisterns that we just take all of this comfort from people. We have to be a conduit and pass that on and bless other people wiss it, with it. This isn’t a complicated command as we receive comfort from God in our afflictions. God’s people, God’s presence, whatever it is that comforts us, we pass that on to other people who are in similar kinds of affliction. One commentator put, put it this way when he said, “God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.” And Calvin put it this way, he said, “The riches of the Spirit therefore are not to be kept by us to ourselves, but everyone must communicate to others what he has received.”

 This isn’t a complicated command. What you have received, pass it on to others. So what hinders us from passing on what we have received? What constricts that conduit of God’s grace from passing it on to other people? What blocks that pipe, so to speak, and keeps that comfort from passing through us to others? On the other hand, what facilitates it, what maybe expands that conduit to allow more comfort to pass through us to other people?

There are many things I think that get in the way and I want to just expose a few of those, try to remove any barriers among all of us so that we might love and care for one another better. So I have four categories of negative and positive pairs, kind of opposites. So we’ll just tackle them together. They kind of go together. Four categories of negative and positive things that will, that hinder and also help in our ability to be conduits of God’s comfort to others.

So the first is ignorance and knowledge. Ignorance and knowledge. Those things that hinder and help constrict or expand our ability. When I was thinking about this, I was trying to think of illustrations just to help make these things a little bit more concrete. But in my fairly short life, the Lord has not seen to afflict me with enough illustrations to fill in all of these points myself. So what I did was I emailed several church members on Thursday who either are or have gone through significant afflictions, and I asked them what it was that others said or did that brought them the greatest comfort in the midst of afflictions.

And so as we go through this, all of these illustrations that I’m going to bring up, many of you are in here. Many of you are actually the ones who brought this comfort to people. I’ve sanitized all of those things to protect the innocent, no names, protect the innocent and the guilty. But if you come back tonight, I’m going to give them a bit more opportunity to maybe share more fully. I think it’d be a great encouragement to our church.

But the first hindrance or help in being a conduit is ignorance and knowledge. And I want to say this up front because our culture right now, it basically says, unless you have gone through the exact same thing that I’m going through right now, you can’t help me. You can’t speak into my situation. You have to have the same exact experiential knowledge and if you’re ignorant of that experience, there’s no help you have to offer. Now there is, there’s, there’s a very small truth to that.

Paul says here in verse 4, that we are afflicted and we are comforted so that we might be able to comfort others who are going through the same things. If there is no truth to that whatsoever, Paul’s point here would be pretty useless. Experiential knowledge often does bring intellectual knowledge of how to comfort someone. What truths comfort people going through similar trials? But even if we do experience the same exact thing as someone else, we can interpret that affliction wrongly, or we can even apply comfort wrongly.

Also, while many people’s experiences of affliction are unique, they are not unique in kind, Hebrews 4:15 says. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.” Was Jesus tempted in every single way that we are? No, He was never tempted externally by a smartphone, but the text says that he was tempted in all things like we are.

 There are kinds of afflictions, kinds of temptations, physical, relational, etcetera, but there is really no totally unique kind of suffering or afflictions that we’re going to go through. The only person who had that totally unique kind of affliction was Christ, the one who was innocent and yet suffered and was sinned against.

So while you may not have the experiential knowledge of, for instance, losing a child, you most likely have lost someone dear to you. And you can sympathize, though probably to a lesser degree, with someone who has lost a child. You can sympathize in kind with them and therefore you can bring them comfort in kind.

And where you have ignorance all together, especially if you’re young and you really haven’t, you’ve had very few afflictions in your life, therefore you have really experienced little comfort in your life. We have the perfect word of God to teach us how to comfort others. We want to be kind and gracious, but if we know God’s Word, we can comfort others.

We do learn God’s Word better and how to do this through our afflictions. The psalmist in Psalm 119 says this. It teaches you when you endure afflictions. It teaches you what you otherwise would not have learned, but that’s what his word is also here for, to teach us what we otherwise would not learn.

I’ll maybe use an illustration from my own life here. When I was 18 or so, somewhere around there, I had a dear friend of mine who committed suicide. He had blatantly rejected the gospel when I tried to share with him not too long before he died. So there’s really no question where he stood with the Lord. And everyone in this church was very kind and comforting to me.

It was actually kind of ironic, because it was a very Armenian church at the time, but all those who talked to me and comforted me, they all all of the sudden became Calvinists and they started comforting me with the sovereignty of, of God, that there was nothing else I could have done for this person. And as far as I remember, none of those people who had comforted me experienced the same thing, but they had the knowledge of God’s Word, who God was, his truth, and they knew how to apply it to my heart.

And so if you’re younger and you know someone going through a trial that you haven’t yourself experienced, you aren’t exempt from providing comfort just because you haven’t been through anything. That just means you got to try harder to mine those truths from God’s Word, to think deeply and compassionately how to apply those things to others. But don’t shy away from it and use ignorance as an excuse to not bring somebody else comfort.

One church member that I solicited comments from said what stuck out the most to them, what brought her the most comfort, she said and I quote, “was the willingness to inquire, to seek out and then offer simple bits of Scripture and truth about the Lord and just bits that they’ve learned and shared with us.” Nothing particularly dramatic, yet it was persistent.

You’re never going to write the perfect message or have that perfect phone conversation that is so phenomenal it is going to relieve all of their affliction and discomfort forever. But what it is, is just offering simple bits of truth and that’s something every Christian can do.

One member said in his great affliction, beyond just those simple bits of truth, he looked up to a senior saint that he knew was faithfully enduring afflictions, and he was actually encouraged by this older saint that was enduring the same or similar kind of physical afflictions. And maybe you don’t have the knowledge or experience you, you can see this person suffering and being afflicted and you don’t have that same knowledge and experience.

 But when you see them suffering like a Christian and you admire them for that, then just note that and tell them how it’s affecting you, how you’re encouraged by how they’re just walking faithfully through their trial. And this can be a a great source of encouragement and comfort to those who maybe they don’t feel like they’re walking faithfully, but it’s a great source of comfort when we see them doing so. And we tell them.

If you’re older, you’ve had plenty of afflictions in your life. Maybe you’re younger and you’ve had a lot of affliction with many things in your short life. Don’t be a, a cul-de-sac or a dead-end cistern and just collect these things. But take all of that comfort that you have received in the midst of affliction and pass it on to others. But I must commend you, Grace Church, because when I received emails back from these members that I solicited comments for, I was absolutely blown away by the number of people that they mentioned, the number of different people that they mentioned from our church.

I was so encouraged to hear how so many of you have been so faithful to already be performing this ministry. So well done. Keep it up and excel still more. Gather others around you who are younger and teach them how to do the same things. So the first hindrance in being a conduit of God’s comfort is ignorance. But you can expand your knowledge by the use of God’s Word.

The second pair of a hindrance and a help is fear and love. Fear can choke our hearts and cut off the comfort that we would otherwise take to people. This can be a fear of how someone might respond if you say something that you know they need to hear that maybe they don’t want to hear. One of our members said that what brought her the most comfort was that other members, and I quote, “gave me biblical perspectives that I needed to hear, even if I might not have wanted to hear them at the time. They cared enough to tell me hard truths, but without harshness or shaming. And they gave me hopeful truths too.”

This member was dealing with some anger towards another person. And when you’re trying to comfort somebody who’s angry, it can it’s natural to be fearful about how they might respond, if you’re confronting them in order to ultimately bring comfort to their heart. But we have to push past that. We have to love that person and speak the truth to them in love. We have to fight fear with fear. Jesus said in in Luke 12:4 and following, he told his disciples, “do not fear those who kill the body and after that have no more they can do. But I will show you whom to fear. Fear the one who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.”

 You fight fear of man with fear of God when you’re tempted to shrink back from saying what needs to be said and in order to ultimately bring that person comfort, fear God instead. Let your fear of God drive you to push past what else you fear. If you love God and you want to obey him, push through your fear of man and love God and love that person well. John says in 1 John 4:18, “Perfect love casts out fear.”

 So, beloved, let’s love God and love one another well, by pushing through some of that fear, that fear really chokes our ability to let comfort pass from us to others. And I would add to this as well, even mild social fears, social anxieties, as they’re labeled today. Maybe the Lord has put it on your heart to reach out to someone else. But you think, you know what? I just really don’t know that person. How will they take it from me? How will they respond? I don’t want to be intrusive.

And I would say just let your love for any church member here maybe that you don’t know well, let your love for Christ motivate you to pushed past that uncomfortability to bring them the comfort that you have received. Chances are the Lord has put that on your heart for a reason. So ignorance and fear hinder us from comforting others. But knowledge and love, they actually expand our ability to pass comfort on that we have received.

Third is pride and humility. Sometimes we can actually be too proud to help someone in need. Maybe we think you know what this person got themselves into this mess, they can get themselves out. When Paul wrote to the proud Galatians, he told them in chapter 6, beginning in verse 1, he said, “Brothers, even if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each of you looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

 And then Paul goes on to address those who maybe they thought they were above this ministry, in verse 3, he said, “For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” So if you’re ever tempted to think I shouldn’t have to do this or you think certain ministries are beneath you, just remember that you’re a slave of Christ and no ministry is beneath a slave.

Don’t think highly of yourself if you think yourself something. Paul reminds us here that you’re really nothing but a slave. Pride hinders our comforting ministry, but humility, it opens up all kinds of opportunities. One member said that she was encouraged when another member just offered to come clean her toilet. I didn’t think that that was going to be something that made the list.

If you’re a newer Christian and you don’t have a lot of knowledge and experience of comfort yourself, you don’t have a lot to offer. You can do simple things like that for people to bring them comfort. When you’re humble, it greatly expands your ability to bring comfort to people.

There’s also another subtle form of pride that I think can hinder bringing comfort to people, and that is when we think that maybe people, they already know certain things themselves or should know certain truths themselves. I know personally that I have refrained from saying something, because I thought that surely this person already knows this very simple truth I’m thinking of. Except that’s what it means when Paul says renew your mind. It is repeating simple truths to ourselves and sometimes other people need those simple truths repeated to them.

Sometimes we know things in our head and we need to repeat them to work them down into our heart. One member said that another woman was deeply used in her life because, and I quote, “she used Scripture as a guide to direct me. She was my flashlight to show me the way when I felt like I was wandering in the darkness or maybe like a lighthouse when lost in a stormy sea.”

So when people are in the midst of affliction, often times their minds are, are clouded, they aren’t thinking clearly in the midst of grief and affliction. They probably, many of us probably, feel this way, that we don’t even realize that, that we’re wandering around in the darkness or drifting in a storm at, lost at sea at night. And when we take just very simple truths and we repeat them, it’s like that lighthouse where the light turns and it flashes. It’s like a repeating blinking light indicating the way. And so while you might feel this person already knows that, tell them anyway. They may know it, but they may be lost in the dark at the moment, and they might need to be directed and reminded of the way, the truth.

But don’t let that pride get in the way. Don’t think more highly of yourself. Don’t assume what other people know. Be humble. Give the comfort that you have received from the spirit in your own heart. Be the conduit to pass that on to other people. Be willing to reach down, even into the muck and the mire to pull someone else up.

Another way that this comes to mind is even having uncomfortable conversations. Maybe in your pride you’re like, well, I was comforted in that thing, but that’s a little awkward and uncomfortable to talk about, so I’m going to shy away from it. I had just one of these conversations this week. Some things are uncomfortable to talk about, and maybe we’re embarrassed about the things that we’ve struggled with in the past. Don’t let pride get in the way of passing on the comfort that you received that that person really needs.

Fourth and finally, what hinders and helps our ability to comfort others is distance and presence. Nearly every member who responded to me this was in their list that other people were present in their life. For one, one of the members that I emailed, that’s the only thing he listed. He said another member of our church just showed up for him every day, and he said this other member didn’t necessarily know what to say, but him just being there was a comfort.

The purpose of affliction in the life of the believer is to turn us into a conduit that can then bring comfort to other Christians.” Bret Hastings

It’s hard to be a conduit of comfort to somebody else when you’re at a distance. Another member said that a couple ladies at the church and I, quote, “invested hours and hours in helping me work through my pain and anger as righteously as possible. They opened their homes to me, listened well, gave me biblical perspectives that I needed to hear.”

Beloved, it’s a big deal if we just show up for people, just as Christ manifests. Sometimes that’s not appropriate or even possible. However this little device we have as a that we call a phone that does a lot more than that. It allows us to be present and a lot nearer than otherwise possible. We can send notes of encouragement, make phone calls of encouragement without great cost of anything, and we ought to utilize that more than we do.

Another way to be present is just to, to let people know you’re praying for them. One member that I solicited comments from said that she was so encouraged one day she came to church and she had a conversation with another church member that she had never really talked to before. But she said that this church member that she never really talked to before told her that her family prays for her every night.

Affliction makes us feel isolated and alone. In the presence of others, or even letting others know that you’re praying for them. It can provide the greatest comfort that you’re not alone even when you feel alone. Our presence and our prayers help others to be reminded that they are also connected to the head that is Christ.

We’re all in fellowship in his body. No one is alone. So, beloved, this is a very simple command to comfort others with a comfort with which we have received and been comforted by. But many things can get in the way of that, ignorance, fear, pride, distance. Let’s mitigate against those things and increase our capacity to comfort others by cultivating humility, increasing our knowledge, loving God and one another better, and being present in one another’s lives, especially when it matters most. And when we do this, there are some lovely, blessed results.

And that brings us to point three: the results, the fountain of comfort. As we think about a a source of water traveling through a conduit or a pipe, where it comes out is the fountain, that’s what I’m referring to. Just like the the water fountain over here has a source, has pipes, that’s where really all the blessing comes.

There’s this fountain on the end of it, but the results of a church tapping into the source of God, the God of all comfort being conduits of that comfort, passing that on to others, there is a result of a bursting forth of comfort for all of God’s people. As we look at the rest of these verses in 2 Corinthians, I see five results of a ministry like this.

The first one is comfort or maybe better yet, where there is a church practicing this, there is a super abundance of comfort. Look at 2 Corinthians beginning in verse 5, “For just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort.”

 So there, there are some strange views regarding what the suffering of Christ refers to here and I’m not going to mention those. I’m just going to tell you the one that that has strong evidence for it and that is to take this, the sufferings of Christ as a subjective genitive, that means Christ is the subject. These are the sufferings that Christ endured himself. Suffering, here is the word, pathema, which we get our word passion or suffering from, to be affected.

Jesus told his disciples in John 15, that if the world hates him, it would hate them. Paul definitely experienced that. All of the apostles did, and when Paul was writing to the church at Rome, he told them in Romans 8:15 to 16. He says, “The Spirit himself testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God, and if children also heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer,” same word there, “with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.”

 This isn’t talking about the atoning suffering of Christ. Christ paid that. There is no more of God’s wrath left that’s paid for, but it’s referring to all of his suffering that he endured, as an enemy of Satan in the world. There is also in this, in verse 4, this word, abound, perisseuo. It means to overflow. Christ’s suffering abounded to Paul and Timothy. That’s the, we, there. It overflowed to Paul and Timothy as they continued to suffer as ministers of the gospel.

One commentator put it this way when he said, “He, Paul, not only preaches Christ crucified, but he lives it and his suffering brings him joy because he recognizes it to be an irrefutable confirmation of his close tie to his Lord.” There’s a close identity when you suffer for Christ’s sake, it confirms that you are his.

But Paul is talking about the abundance of sufferings that they’re enduring produces an abundance of comfort. And he says just as the sufferings abound and overflow to us, so also the comfort, as the Spirit testifies that we are his, that we suffer for him. This comfort overflows, is passed on from Paul and Timothy to the Corinthians.

 So the first result of being conduits of God’s comfort is that there is a super abundance of comfort passed on. There’s plenty to go around. In other words, as everyone’s bucket is filled up with comfort and it’s overflowing, we have to find some other vessel to pour it into. So just as we have received comfort and our cup overflows, we look for somebody else to to pour it into. There’s no shortage of comfort when we seek to comfort one another like this. We’re all pouring comfort into one another and there’s a super abundance to go around.

That brings us to the next result and that is salvation. Look at the beginning of verse 6. “But whether we are afflicted is for your comfort and salvation.” You may not remember how Paul ended up in Corinth, but it was is a long line of afflictions. He was beaten and imprisoned in Philippi with Silas, and they were hounded by the Jews in Thessalonica so severely that they had to be sent away at night. This eventually led to Berea and Athens, and then they ended up at Corinth.

But Paul’s life was a life of affliction that led him to preach the gospel to the Corinthians. And one result of being Christians, being conduits of God’s comfort that we have received, is passing it on to others. One result is the salvation of souls. God’s comfort as we are all passing comfort to one another, as we are overflowing with comfort that’s going to fall on to even unbelievers in the form of the gospel and there is going to be the result of salvation.

God’s gospel is going to take root in some and if we are being faithful as ministers of comfort, one result is the salvation of the lost. Third, if we keep reading, third is perseverance. Again, verse 6, Paul says, “but whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort which is working in your perseverance in the same sufferings which we also suffer.”

Paul tells the Corinthians really that whatever he goes through, whatever he’s enduring, whether it’s suffering or whether he’s being comforted, it is for their benefit, because just as Paul has received comfort in his afflictions or whatever he has received from the Lord with regard to comfort turns into comfort for the Corinthians.

Paul says, regardless of what I go through, it’s for your benefit. And this is likewise true for us because whatever Paul was afflicted by, which was a lot, or whatever brought him comfort from the Word of God, which was a lot, it is for our benefit as we hold his testimony in our hands along with all of the other apostles and our Lord himself.

All of these comforts we find in the New Testament expanded on from the Old Testament overflowing into our hearts and as our cups overflow, we pour that comfort into one another’s vessels. And the result of this is it increases endurance in us and one another. Lenski says of this, “The divine comforting operates in perseverance by strengthening and increasing it.”

So as we are afflicted and we are comforted, we then know how to comfort our own hearts in that situation if it comes up, but we can also comfort someone else in that like affliction, and all of us will be strengthened. Our endurance will be strengthened and increased as we comfort one another in these things and teach one another how to find comfort in various afflictions.

When we go through other afflictions or we comfort others, we all grow in our capacity to comfort one another, and we all grow an increase in our capacity to endure affliction. As we do this ministry of comforting one another it results in increasing our capacity to endure and persevere through any affliction, and as we strengthen, an increase in our ability to endure that leads to the next result, which is a great confidence.

 Look at the beginning of verse 7, “And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our suffering, so also you are sharers of our comfort.” So when words of truth strengthen us or another that we are trying to comfort, rather than turn them away, this gives us great hope that such a one is really a Christian and in the Lord.

When Jesus told the parable of the soils, if you remember, there were two soils that had apparent growth. That is, the rocky soil and the thorny soil. There was an appearance of growth there. There was an eager reception of the Word, but there was no enduring result. One of those soils typified the person who eagerly received the word. But then the cares and the love for the world choked it out, and that person fell away. Sin and love for the world choked it out. There was no fruit, revealing that that person never really knew the Lord.

 The other fell away when persecutions came. So when people endure affliction, whether it’s enduring persecutions for the sake of Christ or they don’t go after the world and love the world, but they love Christ and they remain faithful to him. They persevere through all kinds of affliction. This only increases our hope and certainty there, that we know him and we are truly his.

Our certainty of hope, it is only increased for ourselves and for one another as we minister to one another. Our confidence in others is only bolstered as we pour this comfort into one another and they find comfort in the truth of God’s Word, and they are strengthened and they persevere. This gives us, as Paul says there, a firmly grounded hope that they do know the Lord, that we do know the Lord, because we really do find comfort in truth and we are persevering in these things.

 And finally, fifth, the fifth result is fellowship. Our hope for you is firmly grounded knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you’re sharers of our comfort. The word sharers there is the word koinonos or companion or partner. It’s the word, same word we get the word fellowship from.

As we suffer together, as we comfort one another, it makes us stronger and stronger partners because we’ve shared in the same kind of suffering. We’ve shared in the same ministry laboring alongside one another. There’s a reason that there are so many groups, you can even think of like rehab groups, AA, or grief groups. When you go through similar afflictions, things bring you closer.

 Those kinds of things bring you closer together. And when we go through afflictions as Christians, and especially when we engage in comforting one another, for whatever reason, whatever reason we comfort one another, there is a close bond that cements us together. This fellowship that we have in Christ, sharing our afflictions, sharing our comfort cements us together, makes us stronger and stronger partners in the gospel that we have.

As we do this, we only grow closer. We grow in our affections for one another. And Paul wrote them telling them, look, we’re in this together. He even told the the Corinthians, he said, “you are shares of our sufferings.” That is Paul’s referring to him and Timothy, all the things that they suffered for the sake of the gospel.

 The Corinthians are united to them in the gospel and they’re sharers of those sufferings. Paul said we’re all in this together. Just as Paul was closely identified with Christ, because of his sufferings, Paul wanted to comfort the Corinthians by telling them that they are sharers in those same sufferings. Thus, they should also be confident of their salvation as well.

When we find ourselves in like company with all these heroes of faith, suffering and being comforted by the same truths, it reminds us, even if we really are alone in this life, we’re never truly alone. We stand on the shoulders of all these men. There are hosts of men throughout history that stand with us, so to speak, as fellow co-laborers and sharers of affliction.

So beloved, as you receive comfort, as you act as a conduit of comfort to one another, just as you have been comforted, or as the Word of God teaches us, and we pass that on as our cup overflows, and we have a super abundance of comfort to go around. Everybody’s cup is overflowing.

We have to continue to look around and find another vessel to pour into. It results in the salvation of some. It results in the increased capacity we have to endure, which only increases our confidence that we know the Lord and those around us know the Lord. It increases our hope, and we only grow closer and closer together.

Beloved, knitted together, cemented together in our love for God and our love for one another. That sounds like a community I want to be a part of, does it not to you? Sounds like a place I want to invest in and be a part of. And I think that’s where we are today and we’re growing and learning. But let’s excel still more beloved. Let’s continue to do this together. Let’s pray.

God, you have filled all of us in in the gospel alone. You have provided so much comfort that overflows to people beyond that many, many blessings in life. Many, many people have endured afflictions and they have come through those things and they have an abundance of comfort to offer others. We have a super abundance of comfort in your word alone. And I just pray that we would know that better, that we would take the knowledge from your word, the experiential knowledge we have in our own sufferings in what comforts us, that we would be faithful to pour that into the lives of other people. I know many here are.

We pray that we would just grow in our love for you and one another to do that even better. And we just pray that all of these results would be a reality here at Grace Church as we continue to work those things out. That there would be a super abundance of comfort to go around. Just so much that we have to look for somebody else to pour into because we have so much in our hearts. We pray that that would result in the salvation of some. We pray that that would only magnify the fact that we know you as we continue to persevere in those things, that it would increase our hope and certainty of our own salvation and those around us. And pray that you would continue to knit our hearts together as we do this, Lord. We pray that you would make this a a reality in our church. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

It is good to be here with you all this morning. I will be preaching this week and next week, and we’re going to be in the passage out of 2 Corinthians chapter 1. If you’d like to turn there in your copy of God’s Word. We’re going to be in this passage of Scripture for a couple weeks. We live in a society that has become very preoccupied with being at ease, with being comfortable, emotionally safe even from those who disagree with us intellectually.

Those who like pain; inflict pain upon themselves. That’s not the norm. The vast majority of people, they’re seeking how to increase their ease and increase their comfort, how to work less and play more. Their jobs are merely a means to satisfy their desires and increase their comfort, whether that be indulging in food, entertainment, otherworldly things and then when people are afflicted by trials and hardship, those are the things that they turn to for comfort; the world, they really have nothing else.

 Christians can often succumb to turning to the same kinds of things for comfort, and the church has reacted against this common attitude and behavior by labeling such people as comfort seekers. And what the Christian means by this is that it is wrong to seek satisfaction or comfort in self-indulgence and sensuality. But the problem with this label of comfort seeker is it makes comfort the problem, as if you when you seek comfort you are sinning all together. I just want to clarify, today, that God is deeply concerned with the comfort of his children.

God wants you to be a comfort seeker. He just wants you to seek your comfort in him, not the fleshly or worldly things that are empty and even soul destroying both body and spirit. This is important, because if you’re going to repent of seeking comfort in fleshly and worldly things, repentance doesn’t mean that you stop seeking comfort altogether. Repentance means you must seek comfort in that which truly provides comfort in Christ, in the gospel that we just sung about.

Repentance from comfort seeking, it isn’t deprivation and self-abasement. God doesn’t want us seeking misery instead of comfort. God wants us to drink deeply from the well of comfort found in him. He wants our souls, both body and spirit, to find comfort, not just our bodies through fleshly indulgence. We’re going to find how to do this in our passage today.

So if you’re there in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, read along with me. We’re going to begin in verse 3. Paul writes to the Corinthians, and he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction. So that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

“For just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is working in your perseverance in the same sufferings which we also suffer. And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.”

That word comfort in noun and verb form is used there ten times. That’s a fifth of the entire number of times it’s used in the New Testament found just in those few verses right there. Do you think God cares about our comfort? This topic was brought to mind as I was reading the last couple weeks out Owen, in one of the volumes of his completed works on sin and temptation and he’s talking about Romans 8:13 and how if we mortify the flesh, we will live.

 And he has this phrase that hit me and out of that chapter he’s and he says, and I quote, “the vigor, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh.” And that phrase there, “the comfort of our spiritual life” just struck me.

In the world we live in where we seek so many fleshly comforts, just struck by the fact that God does care about our comfort. He does want to comfort us, but not with the vain and empty comfort of the world. Paul likewise, he cared about the Corinthians and their comfort as he wrote this to them.

God cares deeply for our comfort, but it is, as Owen wrote there, the comfort of our spiritual life that he cares about, that must be the priority. Last week, Travis was talking, in his sermon, about religious hypocrites who wage war against their bodies when they think depriving themselves of physical things will mortify sin, so their spirits wage war against their flesh.

The opposite of that is when we our flesh wages war against our spirit by seeking physical comfort and the pleasures of the world to the detriment of our soul, but if we flee from seeking to please our bodies by beating them and depriving them, that’s jumping from one ditch into the other.

The answer in this predicament of seeking comfort in the world is looking to the God of all comfort, to increase the comfort of our spiritual life, which will also bring peace and harmony and comfort to our physical bodies as well. So as we study this passage over the next two weeks, we’re going to see how to find our comfort in Christ. We’re going to see how to help others do the same, and then the blessed result of this comfort that we find in God.

So this passage, we’ve got three points, but we’re only going to cover one of those today, but the three, three-point outline we’ll cover in the next two weeks is, first of all, the source, we might say, the spring of comfort, and number two, the purpose or the conduit of comfort, and number three, the result or the fountain of comfort.

 But as I mentioned, we’re only going to cover the first today, the source, the spring of comfort. Look again there with me at verse 3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our afflictions.”

If you’re familiar with the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, you know that he had to say some very difficult things to them. They were a very immature church, and Paul had to correct them quite extensively, rebuke them, call them to repentance in, in a wide variety of areas in their life.

This letter, though, it begins with a very different tone. Right away Paul indicates his heart for them, his consolation of them in light of Titus’s report to him, that they had heeded all of the rebuke, all the correction in the first letter, and that they had been working out repentance.

Thus, this letter begins with this benediction of praise to God, but it would have set their hearts at ease as well. It would have been a comfort to them the way he started this letter in light of the last letter. But this letter begins with this benediction, the word, blessed, here. It’s not the same word as we’ve studied in passages like the Sermon on the Mount here. It’s the word eulogetos from which we get our word eulogy. It means to speak a good word or it means to praise something.

So Paul says praise be to God. Paul and Timothy as they write to the Corinthians, they begin by lifting their own hearts in praise to God, so that, when the letter would be read to the Corinthians, they would also lift their heart in praise as well. No doubt some of the people, as the church received Paul’s second letter, they probably would have been pretty trepidatious about hearing it. Is it going to be a bunch more of those difficult words to hear?

But these opening sentences about comfort would set the tone for the rest of the letter. It would have immediately comforted those who might have been ill at ease in anticipation of its reading. And it began here with extolling, “God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort.”

For Paul to confess and praise God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It elevates Christ above all other Lords, making him equal with God, setting him in distinction from all others, but it reveals God, not just as the father of Israel, but the father of Christ, and the father of all those who are in Christ, the father of all those found in Christ, namely the Corinthians, and all who confess him as Lord still and are those are identified with him.

 God is our father as well, the father of all mercies. Mercy, here it refers to a display of concern for another’s misfortune. You see someone down, you feel for them, you pity them; you are moved to compassion. This noun is actually pretty rare. It’s only used five times in the New Testament, and all but one of those are in relation to comforting God’s people.

God is a God of mercy, and he that compassion is moved to comfort. This word, it denotes God’s concern for the plight of those who suffer. He is genuinely concerned for those who suffer. He isn’t indifferent to it. He isn’t distant from it. He’s the father of all mercies.

The Puritan commentator Matthew Henry puts it well when he says, “there is a multitude of tender mercies in God essentially, and all mercies are from God originally. Mercy is his genuine offspring and His delight.” Jesus and mercy, here, metaphorically are siblings that work together as God shows pity upon people; bring relief to their plight and to their affliction.

In this verse is a chiastic structure, it starts and ends with God. There’s two mentions of the father, in between the father, dual mention of that, emphasizes that relational aspect, that intimate aspect; just as if you are a father, you would have compassion on your children who are in affliction.

 God is the father of all mercies. He’s far more compassionate than even we are for our children when they are in affliction, because where we sometimes even fail to be compassionate, God is the father of all mercies, the God of compassion.

It finds its source, all of our compassion finds its source in him. He is a tender, compassionate father who takes pity on those who are afflicted. So while mercy here, father of all mercies, denotes the inward concern and the pity, this inward concern moves one to do something about it. And in our case here, it’s a movement to provide comfort to those who are afflicted.

He’s not just the father of all mercies and compassion, and but he is the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction. The word comfort here is the word paraklesis related to the verb parakaleo. The Holy Spirit is called the comforter, the same word, and this word has the range of meaning from emboldening another in a belief or course of action. That is to encourage someone to exhort them to do something. It can also mean to make a strong appeal or request to someone. But it can also mean, as it does here, to lift another’s spirits, to comfort them, to console them, to lift them up when they’re downcast.

Most of us think of the word comfort as maybe emotional relief, a sense of well-being, physical ease, satisfaction, freedom from pain and anxiety. I think that’s how the world views comfort and the comfort that God provides, it isn’t too dissimilar from that, but it incorporates the spirit of man as well.

The comfort that God is the source of, it does provide emotional relief, but it’s a deep emotional relief, as our sin is actually dealt with and our consciences are cleared. The comfort that God provides it involves a sense of well-being, but both body and soul.

It’s not just physical ease, but a spiritual strengthening. It’s not just a shallow satisfaction that flees away as as quick as we are done indulging ourselves in something, but it is a deep satisfaction that is long lasting.

This comfort that God provides that is sourced in him. It does provide freedom, but it’s a freedom from the power of sin. It does provide relief from anxiety, but it does so as we’re freed from the power of sin and we’re forgiven. The anxiety over our sin is dealt with. Doesn’t that sound like much better comfort to receive when you’re afflicted by any trial or hardship?

It’s not the worldly comfort of shallow ease that never satisfies, but it’s the deep, soul satisfying, enduring comfort. God’s comfort endures, because its source is in him and he is eternal and endures all things. So how do we receive this kind of comfort, this enduring comfort? And that’s really what we’re going to spend the rest of our time on this morning. And it’s really going to culminate in the ordinance of communion.

So the beginning of verse 4 says, God comforts us in all our afflictions. God is the God of all comfort. He is the source, and just as our afflictions are varied, and they are many, so also are the streams of his comfort to us. If we are to enjoy the full force of God’s comfort, we have to then absorb every little tributary that flows to us, so to speak, every small stream that comes to us. So our comfort comes in full force as we tap into all those small sources of it.

So as we think about tributaries running into, all supplying a, a river or a spring to create the full force, so we are going to look at ten tributaries or streams that we can tap into in order to receive the full force of God’s comfort. And we’ll do ten, if we have time to get to them, or we’ll cut it off at number seven, if we don’t have time to get to the rest.

But we’ve got these ten tributaries that we tap into in order to receive the full force of God’s comfort, strengthening us spiritually to face the afflictions of life, to face them not with weak knees, but with unbending resolve and rock solid assurance that will also produce a deep satisfaction of the soul that will endure through the ages.

We’re essentially going to look at the Old Testament development of God as the God of all comfort. So the first of these ten tributaries or streams of comfort sourced in God number one or sub-point A is truth. If you would take your Bible and turn to Psalm 119, and I’m going to lead up to that with a few comments.

But if you’re a Christian and it’s no surprise to you if you’ve ever been afflicted and going through a trial, it is extremely comforting when someone comes and administers truth to your heart and deals with your affliction. We have an example in the Scripture of the discouraging effect on someone when it’s the reverse, when someone tries to minister comfort with falsehood, we have this example in the book of Job.

In Job 21:34, this is Job responding to his friends, who tried to comfort him, but they didn’t have, they, they weren’t accurate in the things that they were saying and Job said this to his friends. “How then will you vainly comfort me indeed, when your answers remain full of falsehood?”

Job’s friends had tried to comfort him, but they told him things like, Job, you’re suffering because only sinners suffer and you’ve done something wrong and you need to repent. They told him things like, Job, it’s, it’s your fault this is happening to you. That’s not comforting to somebody, especially like Job, who hadn’t sinned. He was not suffering because of his sin; he’s actually suffering because he was the most righteous man that God could point Satan to for his own glory.

But lies and falsehood, they don’t bring comfort to God’s people. They might bring a temporary comfort to unbelievers, but it’s a fleeting comfort; it’s a soul-destroying comfort. For example, believers are comforted by the truth of reality. We’re comforted by creation order, when we’re pressed and afflicted by satanic ideologies of gender confusion in the alphabet soup of the sexual revolution.

We’re comforted and spiritually strengthened knowing biological reality, just revealed in natural law, that we can clearly see and observe. Believers are comforted by truth, just the truth of reality, not the falsehoods of the world.

 But if you’re in the Psalm 119, the the truth of reality in the natural world that we see is, is one thing that can provide us comfort, but the word of God is another aspect revealed in his word that ought to be the, the source of our comfort.

God wants us to drink deeply from the well of comfort found in him.” Bret Hastings

When God’s children are afflicted, they are deeply comforted by the truth. Go to verse 49, we’re going to read through 49 to 52, and then we’ll also touch on verse 76 and, and 82. But the author of Psalm 119 writes and he says, “remember the word to your slave, which you have made me wait. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your word has revived me.

“The arrogant utterly scoff at me, yet I do not turn aside from Your law. I have remembered your judgments from of old, O Yahweh, and comfort myself.” We find there the comfort that the psalmist finds in God’s Word. And as you know, if you’ve read Psalm 119 at all, the focus is on God’s Word and the effect of it in the life of a believer.

 The love that this psalmist has for the Word of God, and in part he loves it because when he goes to it, it brings him comfort in his afflictions. Look over at verse 76, He says, “Oh, may your loving kindness comfort me according to your word to your slave.” And then if you go down to verse 82, “my eyes fail with longing for your word, saying, when will you comfort me?”

The psalmist, when he was longing for comfort, he knew that it was only going to be found in God’s Word. God’s slaves, God’s children, they are comforted by God’s Word. When we as Christians, we go through any affliction, it is the truth of God’s Word that comforts us.

So, beloved, when you are afflicted, whether it’s outward pressures or trials or oppositions, when you want to be comforted, do you flee to God’s Word for comfort or do you run to other things and other people to find your comfort? Or do you, like the psalmist here, you flee to God’s Word, longingly looking for comfort in his revealed Word?

Beloved, God doesn’t want you to settle for distraction from your affliction. He wants you to come to him and find true comfort, lasting comfort in your affliction and that’s primarily found in his word. As we move on and look at these other tributaries or streams that bring us comfort, most of them or all of them could probably fit under this, as as sub-points because they are all revealed in God’s word, but they’re distinct.

So we’ve just broken them up, broken them up into more points. So the first stream that brings us comfort, this is just generally, truth; reality in general and the truth of God’s word. But second, sub-point B, we’re also comforted by God’s protection. If you would flip back just to Psalm 23, most of you, many of you are familiar with this.

And as I mentioned, as our afflictions are varied and many, so we also need to drink of the various avenues of God’s comfort that he gives us in order to be fully satisfied, fully comforted in him. If, for example, that you are afflicted with fears from external things, the freedom you have in Christ isn’t necessarily going to bring you a great comfort.

But if you’re afflicted and you’re giving into a certain sin, the freedom you have in Christ to overcome that sin is a great comfort. So just as our afflictions are varied, we want to look at the various means and of comfort, the streams of comfort that God gives us so we can drink deeply of that and be comforted by him.

In Psalm 23, we’re not going to read the whole thing for the sake of time, but David writes in verse 4, “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

David models here where when he feels like he’s going through the valley of the shadow of death, going through afflictions, he tells us here how we can find comfort as well. When you’re afflicted with fears, maybe for your own life, your own health, your own safety, maybe of a family member.

When you’re going through a fearful, uncertain time that brings all kinds of terrors to mind, is one of the greatest comforts. At least it is to my own soul and many others to meditate on the truths of this Psalm and be reminded that God is the Good Shepherd who protects his sheep.

His rod there refers to the weapon of the shepherd who would fend off lions and bears coming to attack the sheep. And when we understand that God is, he stands as our Shepherd, ready to beat off any attacker, we have nothing to fear.

The Almighty God of the universe stands as our Shepherd, as our protector. What do we have to fear when he stands guard? And so, when you are afflicted with fear, where do you seek comfort? Is it in the arms of our dear Shepherd or is it by some other fleeting means? And perhaps the Good Shepherd has seen fit to allow you to be greatly afflicted by trials. Maybe like Job, who lost almost everything except his own life.

Maybe you’re in the midst of a dark valley that other people fear. Maybe that you once feared and you are afflicted and in need of comfort. Well, that brings us to the third stream of comfort that we can tap into or sub–Point C restoration.

Restoration, turn over a few chapters to Psalm 71. Psalm 71. In two very brief verses here the psalmist acknowledges that God has afflicted him and yet he will revive him. In this Psalm, the author’s been afflicted with many troubles and evils, and yet he seeks restoration. He finds comfort in God’s restoration of him and those promises.

So Psalm 71, look at verse 20 and 21. The psalmist writes, “You have shown me many troubles and evils,” and yet he trusts in this. “You will revive me again and will bring me up again from the depths of the earth. May you increase my greatness and turn to comfort me.”

So in two very brief verses here, he acknowledges that that God is the one who’s brought these things into his life, and yet he understands that it’s also God who will revive him, who will restore him to greatness and comfort him.

So have you been afflicted with many troubles and evils? Maybe you’re in the midst of that deep, dark valley that David mentioned. You’re not just afraid of it, now it’s a reality in your life. Maybe you, you have experienced the loss of position. Maybe you’ve received a medical diagnosis that’s going to afflict you the rest of your life. Maybe it has reduced the number of days that you thought you had left.

When you’re afflicted with troubling thoughts about this and these evils that have come upon you, where do you find your comfort? Do you bury yourself in sorrows? Maybe self-pity, put your head under the pillow, hope it goes away, try to ignore it.

Or maybe you go to the opposite end and you use it as an excuse to live out the rest of your days however you want. Or do you comfort yourself with the reality that one day God will restore you? Maybe in this life, but if not, certainly he will, as the psalmist says, bring you up from the grave and restore you not to the way you are now, but he’s going to increase your greatness, as the psalmist says there.

He’s going to make you like our Lord Jesus in his resurrected state, his glorified state. We will realize the full comfort of God then, but we can be comforted now by the future reality of our restoration, it is certain. David spoke of this also at the end of Psalm 23, when he spoke of the certainty, “that I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”

Regardless of what happens to you in this life, regardless of what was going to happen to the psalmist here or David in Psalm 23, even if he had died in the valley of the shadow of death, he knew he would be restored to the Good Shepherd.

Beloved, when we are afflicted with many troubles and evils, we can drink deeply of the promises of future restoration where we will receive a hundredfold of whatever we think we have lost in this life. Don’t turn to the world when you feel like your days have been cut short. Don’t, don’t turn to the world for comfort, but turn to Christ. Remember, he will restore you.

Next sub-point D, God comforts us through the stream of justice. Justice. Flip over to Psalm 135, because we’re already in the the Psalm; before we, we move on, we want to touch here. We’re kind of for the most part looking at this as God has revealed himself as a God of comfort progressively throughout the Old Testament.

We’re going to discuss here how God brings us comfort regarding justice towards others, and then we’ll move on to also consider how we find comfort when we think of God’s justice towards us.

Psalm 135, verse 14 says, “for Yahweh, will render justice for His people, and will give comfort to His slaves.” Immediately preceding this, the psalmist talked about God’s judgment upon the Egyptians who oppressed Israel as their slave masters along with all the people of Canaan.

We all have the law of God imprinted on our hearts as image bearers, and we know that sin deserves punishment. Justice must be done and it’s a great comfort, as it’s described here. When God has executed judgment on those who have sinned against us, those who sinned against Israel.

When justice is served, it bring great, brings great comfort to the victim. When we see injustices going unpunished, it bothers us and and rightly so. It wasn’t too long ago that a member of our church called and was struggling because someone in his family had been deeply sinned against some sexual sin against a sibling, and he was really bothered by what was going to happen, whether this person was going to receive justice or not.

 It is deeply comforting to understand the truth of God’s justice. When you are afflicted by another sinner, when others sin against you and we seek justice, do you seek comfort and relief, by as some people do by ignoring it. Some people seek comfort by stewing over it and rehearsing the wrong in our minds, thinking evil thoughts about those people.

Maybe you seek relief even by returning evil for evil, an eye for an eye, it’s it’s even biblical. These things promise relief, but they can’t deliver. They only bring more pain, because it’s more sin on on our part when we respond to injustice like that.

True relief and comfort is found when we think upon the justice of God. Even if some heinous sin goes unpunished in this life, a person maybe they don’t even go to jail for what they had done. It is a comfort to know that one day God will execute justice, that person will not escape justice.

God will one day punish every sin, and full and final justice will be had for all, and there’s nothing that you can do personally to the person who sinned against you or someone else you love to bring about the satisfaction of justice. Nothing you can do will truly bring comfort, but God can and God will.

 God was concerned about justice for Israel, punishing those who did her wrong, thus bringing them comfort knowing justice was done. Beloved, he seeks to bring you the same comfort. He will one day bring you that comfort. And we can find comfort now, knowing that one day all will receive justice.

But we should be far more concerned with our own sins against God than how other people have sinned against us. You’re in Psalm 135, go to Isaiah chapter 40, Isaiah chapter 40. This brings us just to the the second aspect of justice that we find comfort in, and that is justice even for our own sins.

When we sin, justice is demanded; punishment is deserved. We have sinned against the holy God of the universe. We have sinned and our consciences are afflicted. There’s a weight of sin against us that we cannot bear. And if you’re here today and you are still in your sins, you have not received the forgiveness that God offers; you stand as his enemy. He is angry with your sin every day, but there is a way to receive justice for your sin that restores your life rather than ends it.

In Isaiah 12, I told you to go to 40. You can stay there. Just listen as I read Isaiah 12:1, where he says, “Then you will say in that day I give thanks to you Yahweh, for although you were angry with me. Your anger is turned away and you comfort me.”

Isaiah tells of a future day when Israel would have the anger of God turned away from their sins and comfort them. This comfort will come by receiving justice for her own sins. If you look at Isaiah 40 verse 1 there, I’m going to read verses 1 and 2 where Isaiah writes, “Comfort, Oh comfort my people, says your God, speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her that her warfare has been fulfilled, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received from the hand of Yahweh double for all her sins.”

Comfort comes when sin is dealt with, when the payment has been paid. But notice the following verses, verses 3 and 4, but particularly 3, “A voice is calling, ‘Prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness, make smooth in the desert, a highway for our God.’” Does that verse sound familiar? That’s because every Gospel account, Matthew, Mark, Luke and all, and John, they all quote this verse at the beginning of their Gospels.

 Mark actually begins his Gospel with this quotation. Mark begins his Gospel with the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is written in Isaiah the prophet. “Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way. The voice of the one crying in the wilderness. Make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.”

That’s the beginning of the Gospel, because this is the beginning of the gospel. The beginning of comfort begins with having our sins dealt with. “Comfort, Oh, comfort my people, for I’m going to deal with your sins, but not by punishing you, but by removing your iniquity.”

And those Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John go on to detail how he did that by fulfilling the law, obeying the Mosaic Law perfectly, being the perfect God man, who then was sufficient to die in our place and bear our punishment. “He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God,” that we might have all of the dead of our sin nailed to the cross and forgiven in Christ. “Oh, how blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven.”

We’re forgiven because we have trusted in the sacrifice of Christ that he took all of our punishment. He bore our sin, and now we are robed in his righteousness. We receive comfort and consolation rather than the pain and punishment that we deserved.

If you’re here today and you haven’t been made right with the Lord, you’re still in your sins. You can repent of your sins and believe and trust in that same truth. You can trust in the sacrifice of Christ and receive comfort for your sins.

And now as Christians, when we sin, we can be comforted by reminding ourselves of this gospel all over again, that has saved us. Jesus dealt with all of our sin on the cross and when we sin, we clearly need to clear our consciences before God and seek forgiveness, but positionally before him, we are forgiven fully and finally in Christ, all of our sins have been paid for.

We don’t need to wallow in self-pity that we sinned again, but we comfort ourselves with the truth of the gospel. Christ paid it all, but there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. And this if this is a reality in our life, we have been forgiven, then this is a great comfort to us daily as we sin. And God wants us to comfort our own hearts with these gospel truths. He doesn’t want us to continue to feel bad about what we did. He wants us to confess and repent, yes, but immediately applying the balm of the gospel to our hearts.

And this can be a great comfort when other Christians sin against us, because we don’t need to hold it against them either. We don’t need to demand their punishment. We forgive, as God has forgiven us in Christ. Christ paid for every one of your sins as much as he did mine.

And when another Christian sins against us, we comfort ourselves knowing that Christ paid for that as well. They don’t need to pay for that. They simply need to repent. We graciously forgive. We receive them back and restore them.

He wants you to come to him and find true comfort, lasting comfort in your affliction and that’s primarily found in his word.” Bret Hastings

So, beloved, when you’re afflicted by sin, your own, as you willfully participate in it, the sin of others, do you find comfort in trying to work out justice yourself, that is making others pay for their sins against you, or trying to do penance and pay for your own sins against others?

Or are you trusting in the gospel and the God of justice to deal with sin, whether that’s in Christ, in the cross for all those who have trusted in him, or fully and finally, on Judgement Day, God will render justice.

Find your comfort in that, not in trying to work it out yourself. This justice leads to our next point, sub-point E, peace. Turn over just a few pages to Isaiah 57. Isaiah 57, justice naturally leads to peace when sin is dealt with, God’s wrath has been poured out, it brings peace.

Isaiah 57 verse 14 says, “And it will be said, ‘build up, build up, prepare the way, Remove every stumbling block out of the way of My people. For thus says the One high and lifted up, Who dwells forever, whose name is Holy, I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the crushed and lowly of spirit In order to the revive the spirit of the lowly And revive the heart of the crushed.

“For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; For the Spirit would grow faint before Me, And the breath of those whom have made. Because of the iniquity of his greedy gain I was angry and struck him; I hid My face and was angry, And he went on turning away, in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;

“I will lead him and pay him his mourners in full with comfort, Creating the praise of the lips. Peace, peace to him who is far, and to him who is near,’ says Yahweh, ‘and I will heal him.’ But the wicked are like the tossing of the sea, For it cannot be quieted, and its waters toss up refuse and mud. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’”

 If our own sin has been dealt with before God, paid for in Christ, we have objective peace with God. We’ve been justified, declared righteous before God. That’s an objective reality. But this objective reality leads to a subjective peace that we just read about there.

 When we remind ourselves of our justification before God in Christ, it comforts us. As we are reminded of this objective peace that our sins have been dealt with. We find also peace in this subjective, we find comfort in this subjective peace. This text, towards the end there said the wicked are like a tossing sea, there is no peace, no comfort in a raging sea. It’s always tossing up refuse and mud. There’s no peace for the wicked, but the opposite is true for the one whose life rests in the gospel.

The gospel makes war with the world and unbelievers, but it brings great peace to Christians and even Christian households. If your home operates with gospel principles, if your marriage priorities are dealing with sin rather than ignoring them, if you’re concerned with working out repentance, then there is, most times, a relative peace in the home.

Many people seek peace in their home, but they try to achieve it not by the gospel, but just by pacification and mollification of sinners, sweeping things under the rug. This is a false and empty peace. But when we seek to be faithful to the gospel, that there’s, there is going to be relative peace in our life, in our homes, in our relationships, in particular with other Christians.

And as we experience this peace, we ought to take great comfort, as is mentioned in this passage, we ought to be encouraged that, even though we do stumble, even though we are afflicted, maybe we are doing this whole thing right, that God has gifted you in the gospel and as you experience this peace, it’s the fruit of the Spirit in your life that God has given you to bring comfort, even to remind you that yes, you are his child.

And then when unbelievers draw near to ask you what is different about your life, about your family, or when they hate you for it, ’cause they want that kind of peace, but they don’t have it and so they hate you for it, beloved, take comfort in all those things. The Lord has brought that peace into your life to bring you comfort.

That brings us to the sixth stream of comfort or sub-point F, faithfulness. Turn back just a couple chapters to Isaiah 51. Sometimes when we are afflicted, doubt assails us. When we are overcome by the things that the Lord has given us to bear, we lose sight of the hope that we have in him. We need to be comforted by his faithfulness towards his people.

Isaiah 51, I’m going to read verses 1 through 8, Isaiah writes, “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, Who seek Yahweh: Look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug. ‘Look to Abraham your father And to Sarah who brought you forth through labor pains; When he was but one I called him, Then I blessed him and multiplied him.’

“‘Indeed, Yahweh will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places. And her wildernesses He will make like Eden, And her desert like the garden of Yahweh; Joy and gladness will be found in her, Thanksgiving and sound of a melody. ‘Pay attention to me, O My people, And give ear to Me, O My nation; For law will go forth from Me, And I will set My justice for a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, And My arms will judge the peoples; The coastlands will hope in Me, And for My arm they will wait expectantly.

“‘Lift up your eyes to the sky, then look to the earth beneath; For the sky will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, And its inhabitants will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not be dismayed. Listen to me, you who know righteousness, A people whose heart is my law; Do not fear the reproach of man, Nor be dismayed at their reviling’s. For the moth will eat them like a garment, And the grub will eat them like wool. But My righteousness will be forever, And My salvation to all generations.’”

 When we feel overcome and assailed by the afflictions that the Lord has brought into our life, he begins there by reminding them of Abraham. Was God faithful to his servant Abraham? While we don’t come from the same gene pool, we haven’t been hewn from the same rock, so to speak, the New Testament says we’ve been grafted in.

 We are Abraham’s true children in the faith; thus we can look to Abraham. We can see how God was faithful to him, though he was but one, God made a promise to him and turned him into a nation of many, that brought blessing to all of us. And just as God has been faithfulness to Abraham all the way to us who are his children, and even though we are but one person, God deeply cares.

God is faithful to each one of his children even when we are not. He is faithful. He is faithful to bring about all of his promises. Not one of them will fail. Do not doubt that beloved, but trust that just as he was faithful to Abraham and all of his children sin, so he will be faithful to you, to lead you through whatever affliction it is that assails you.

All of this is in part because of his redemption. That is the seventh stream of comfort to us sub-point G, redemption. You’re right where you need to be in Isaiah 51. Just look at verse 17, this is a little bit longer of a section, but I think we’ll probably end with with this point and lead into communion.

But Isaiah 51:17 beginning in 17 and we’re going to go through 52:10. Isaiah writes and he says, “Awaken yourself, awaken yourself, Arise, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath, the chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs. There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne, nor is there one to take hold of her by the hand among all the sons she has reared. These two things have befallen you. Who will console you the devastation and destruction, famine and sword. How shall I comfort you? Your sons have fainted.”

They lie, “they lie helpless at the head of every street, like an antelope and a net full of the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God. Therefore now listen to this, you afflicted who are drunk, but not with wine. Thus says the Lord Yahweh, even your God, who contends for His people. Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling, the chalice of my wrath. You will never drink it again. I will set it into the hand of those who cause you grief, who have said to you, lie down that we may walk over you. You have set your net back down like the ground and like the street for those who walk over it.

 Awake, awake. Clothe yourself and strength, O Zion. Clothe yourself in your glorious garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city for the uncircumcised and the unclean will no longer come into you. Shake yourself from the dust. Rise up, O captive Jerusalem. Loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus says Yahweh, you are sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed without money.

For thus says the Lord Yahweh. My people went down at first into Egypt to sojourn there. Then the Assyrians oppressed them without cause. So now what do I have here declares Yahweh? Since My people have been taken away for nothing, Yahweh declares those who rule over them howl, and my name is continually blasphemed all day long. Therefore my people shall know My name. Therefore in that day I am the one who is speaking, here I am. How lovely.

On the mountains are the feet of him who proclaims good news, who announces peace and proclaims good news of good things, who announces salvation and says to Zion, Your God reigns the voice of your Watchmen. They lift up their voices, they shout joyfully together, for they will see with their own eyes. When Yahweh returns to Zion, break forth, shout joyfully together. You waste places of Jerusalem. For Yahweh has comforted his people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. Yahweh has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God.”

When we are afflicted, as Isaiah was prophesying to bring comfort to Israel, when we are afflicted, we can find comfort in our redemption. If we continue to read, you know, right after this is Isaiah 53, we’re going to read just a small portion leading into communion.

But where most of us are familiar with that, it outlines the suffering servant who shed his blood to accomplish this redemption. We might ask, how does this comfort us any differently than the justification we talked about earlier? Well, the justification comforts us when we sin, that it has been dealt with.

The redemption here comforts us when we are afflicted by things external to us. When we go through deep, deep trials in this life, when we are overcome by afflictions, it’s comforting to be reminded what God has spared us from. Look over at Isaiah 53:4 to 12, which outlines what God has put his son through, which really is sparing us from Isaiah 53 forces.

“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening of our peace fell upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to His own way; But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of all of us To fall on Him.

“He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that was led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And As for His generation, who considered That He was,” cut out of the land of the living, or “cut off out of the land of the living, That for the transgression of my people, striking was due to Him? So His grave was assigned with the wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

“But Yahweh was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If you would place His soul as a guilt offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge. The Righteous One, My servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquity. Therefore, I will divide Him a portion with the many, And He will divide the spoil with the strong; Because He poured out his soul to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.”

 When we’re tempted to think in this life, in our affliction, that God has given us maybe a burden too heavy to bear, we can be comforted and remind ourselves what we have been spared. We deserve to be crushed by God. Yet he spared us from that. Whatever burden he has given us to bear instead, it is infinitely more bearable than that. And any discontent we have with the lot God has given us in this life, when we reflect on what Christ has done for us, that discontentment should quickly be turned into joy and thanksgiving and satisfaction.

And as we reflect on what he endured to save us, to bring us into eternal blessedness with him, man, that ought to bring a deep satisfaction to our soul, comfort us in our affliction, no matter what affliction assails us. He did not spare the life of his son to redeem us. We were spared wrath and punishment. Moreover, he will hold us fast and never let us go, no matter the depth of our affliction.

He spared you and afflicted his own son instead with the greatest affliction. He purchased you by the blood of Christ to ensure that you would never be separated from him. Don’t kick against the goads of the lot and life he has given you. Don’t look to worldly things for comfort in your affliction, but turn to him. Find comfort in rejoicing in your redemption regardless of your life circumstances.

 Looking at the time, we are not going to try to cover the other three. That ends in a very good place to lead into communion. But Beloved, when you need comfort in affliction, don’t settle for the fleeting comfort of this world. Turn to the one who can truly comfort you in any affliction. Drink deeply from all of these streams that we surveyed today and apply the balm to your own heart.

But just as we lead into communion, as we look, this is the progressive revelation in the Old Testament of God’s, as the God of comfort, but all of this finds its culmination, its full realization in Christ. I’ve already connected all of these things to Christ and the gospel.

But I just want to make this point in Luke chapter 2, when Jesus’s parents come to dedicate him at the temple. Simeon rejoices because he was a righteous man waiting for the Christ, and the Holy Spirit told him, revealed to him that he would see the Christ before he died. And when Jesus’s parents brought him to dedicate him at the temple, the Spirit revealed to him that that was the Christ. And the text says Christ is described there as the comfort of Israel.

All of this Old Testament revelation revealing God is the God of comfort for his people. It culminates and it finds its fulfillment in Christ. Beloved, God is the father of all mercies, Christ is your comfort, and the Holy Spirit is the comforter that makes all of this a reality in our hearts. We want to look to him, we want to find our comfort. Seek comfort in him, not in all the vain things of the world. With that, let’s turn our attention to communion.

Our Father of all mercies, God of all comfort. We come before you this morning humbly recognizing we do so on no out of no righteousness of our own, but we only approach to partake of this holy meal, because of the righteousness of your son Christ imputed to us. We praise you for your mercy and your grace towards us, and we ask that you would bless these elements, that they would be true spiritual food for us, that through this bread and cup that you would commune with us as we commune with you and one another. And we pray all these things in your blessed son Jesus’ name, Amen.

Colossians 2:20-23

We return to Colossians Chapter 2, and we are at the end of the chapter, this great chapter, and looking at the final verses, Colossians 2:20 through 23, so you can find your way there in your Bibles. And at this point in the letter, Paul has become quite direct in his confrontation of these false teachers. And as we’ve seen, he is less interested to sift through the errors of their doctrine and more interested instead, more concerned, to expose them for who they are and what they are and to tell the Colossians not to listen to them.

 As we get into the text, let’s go back and start our reading at verse 8 in Colossians chapter 2 and I’ll read a portion that we covered last week. Stop. And can make comment just by way of review. Colossians 2:8, Paul warns the Colossians, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily, and in Him you have been filled, who is the head over all rule and authority; in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

“And you being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having graciously forgiven us all our transgressions. Having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us, He also has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” And, “Having disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them in Him.”

“Therefore, no one is to judge you in food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” And Christ has arrived. The substance has arrived. He is the reality. He is the substance that all the law in its figures and its types pointed to.

They are the mere shadows of Christ, the substance, but the false teachers, they like living in the shadows. They want to make much of old forms and figures and try to intimidate people for not following along with them, joining with them. And they will judge them if they resist. And so Paul says here, let none of those shadow dwellers judge you. Let none of them take you to task for clinging solely and wholly to Christ.

Yes, they’ll cast stones at you from the shadows, but you just walk away. You just follow after Jesus Christ. Don’t let them dictate your eating and your drinking as if food prepares you for any religious observance. Don’t let anyone control your time. Don’t let anyone dictate your calendar and drain your energy. Live in the freedom that God designed from the beginning, six days of work, one day of rest.

His perfect freedom, his eternal rest are secured for you in Christ and when he returns again, and we enter into that eternal state, there will be an eternal Sabbath’s rest for the people of God. Look at verse 18, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, going into detail about visions he has seen, being puffed up for nothing by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.”

 Unlike the false teachers, the Colossians are connected to the head who is Christ. They are members of Christ’s body. And the connection of the joints in the cohesion of the ligaments gives shape to the body and structure and form and provides support for all the members of the body. And this body is the means God uses to grow us healthy and strong and stable, mature.

The false teachers have none of that. They have severed their connection to the body and severed their connection to the head. They have walked away. They ventured off on their own into an oblivion, and they’re adrift in the darkness, walking in the shadows, and they want you to join them. So when they try to disqualify you, don’t you let them?

When they try to intimidate you and make you feel like you’re not part of some insider’s circle, because you have not seen the visions they’ve supposedly seen, because you don’t know the things that they supposedly know, don’t you listen? Because they do not love what you love and they do not have what you have, because they are not what you are and do not know the one that you know what is true of you, what is going on in your heart as a believer. It’s not true of them. It’s not going on in their heart, never has.

You belong to Christ and they do not and they want to bring you down with them. So that’s how Paul exposes the false teachers and their false teaching. It’s very clear about it. Having exposed the false teachers for what they really are and solidifying the Colossians resolve hopefully to inoculate them against false judgments and wrongful condemnation.

He’s trying to help these believers to stand up to any this unjust disqualification on the part of the false teachers accusing them. He wants them to resist and to overcome spiritual intimidation. But now in the text before us, in the last verses of the chapter, Paul turns to address the Colossians, and he wants to help them to see their unwitting complicity with the false teachers.

It’s a shame when we do that, isn’t it? To end up undermining our own cause by giving in to the relentless pressures of false teachers, false thinking, false religious observances. But we all do it to some degree. We just don’t see it clearly.

To this point in the letter, Paul has given thanks for the Colossians and he’s been unreserved about that bold, clear. He’s told them how he prays for them. He’s encouraging them and the truth of the gospel. Then he goes on, after giving thanks for them, after expressing how he’s praying for them, he goes on to teach them.

He teaches them in order to strengthen them and strengthen their assurance in the truth. And as we know in chapter 1, that great passage on the supremacy of Christ, Paul teaches them how supreme he is. How great he is. This wouldn’t have been the first time that they came to understand who Christ is.

Epaphras taught them and Philemon taught them, many other elders and teachers in the Colossians church and also up the road in Laodicea and Hierapolis, those churches as well. There were teachers in the Lycus Valley who taught them the gospel, the supremacy of Christ, his greatness, his glory, but here Paul teaches them again of the supremacy of Christ, to which the Colossians say, yes, and Amen, and glory be.

Paul teaches about the salvation of God, the great salvation of God, who gave them Christ as Savior, the God who reconciled them to himself. This God also provided for them by giving them Paul as their apostle, to fill up the afflictions of Christ on their behalf. To which the Colossians say, wow, what a savior, what a salvation, what a God, what an apostle, what provision we have.

And yet, though they know and love the truth, and though they rejoice in the ministry of the Apostle Paul, in the preaching of Epaphras, though they participate every week in the fellowship of the church, and they enjoy the teaching of other pastors and elders and their ministry to one another, they agree with every word, they admire every sacrifice that’s performed on their behalf, appreciate all that ministry.

And though they come week by week and greet one another every single Sunday, give each other hearty handshakes, warm embraces, though they partake together of the symbols and the rituals of the faith, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, signs that signify the deep truths of our fellowship and our unity in Christ.

Why is it that leaving all of that, they walk out and go right back to old habits, practicing what they know to be false? In verses 20 to 23, notice there the tone of a loving and yet perplexed shepherd. “If you have died with Christ,” he says in verse 20, “to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees: ‘Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch?”

“Which deal with everything destined to perish with use, which are in accordance with the commands and teachings of men; which are matters having, to be sure, a word of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”

 Why are you submitting to this? Why do you listen to them? Why do you practice what they tell you to practice? Why do you follow their prohibitions? You’ve been set free. What leads to this inconsistency? We have to admit this is far too common.

And if the Lord gives us grace, and who has believers around us who help us to see ourselves more objectively that we’re able to see on our own, well then our eyes will be open to ways that we could be inconsistent as well. Why does it seem so hard to stop submitting to the dying decrees of dead men?

We could ask it this way. Why are we Christians sometimes so worldly? Well, we are not yet what we shall one day be, right. Praise God for that man. Don’t we long for that day when we will be free forever from the presence of sin and weakness and trouble, we’ll be strengthened as Christ himself is strong, we’ll be glorious in the resurrection glory of Christ himself.

That’s the promise of the gospel, to participate in his resurrected glory. So we’re not yet what we shall one day be. We are, as of now, immature and we need to grow. We need the most basic truths repeated to us and reinforced and reasserted and reexplained and that’s why we come here every single week.

Consider this your weekly reminder. We have been justified, yes, we’ve been declared righteous by God. We have been sanctified. We are positionally set apart by God as his own because of Christ’s substitutionary atonement and by the power of the spirits regenerating, adopting work, we have been reconciled to God. That is a finished deal.

But that positional sanctification kicks off a process of practical sanctification, which is progressive in nature. It takes time, like watching, not grass grow, but a tree grow, besides still waters, well fed, well-watered, well supplied with nutrients, soil, grown, shaped, pruned by the good gardener, the father, receiving our nutrients from the vine, who is Jesus Christ.

We require time to grow, don’t we? You say I wish he could have speed things up. I do too. But there is no speeding up the process of growth. This is by God’s design. Our growth requires daily feeding on God’s Word, regular meaningful feeding upon Christ, regular meditation in the truth, and prayerful contemplation and understanding of the truth, and prayerful crying out for God to form the truth fully in us and form Christ fully in us.

So we must move from infancy to toddler hood to childhood to adolescence to adulthood to mature adulthood. This takes time, it takes repetition in the truth, it takes regular meals, regular feeding, and then consistency in living out the truth with other Christians at different stages of growth.

People that we follow, listen to hear their wisdom, receive their counsel, receive their rebukes and their correction, and also people who are maybe just behind us in the process that we invest into and we provide that service of ministry for them too. Of teaching, counsel, instruction, guidance, rebuke, correction, training in righteousness. This is the context of the local church, isn’t it?

This is why, Paul, he’s isolated the severity of the false teachers’ error and their condition in verse 19 as not holding fast to the head. That’s a problem. If you don’t hold fast to the head, “from whom the entire body being supplied and held together by the joints and the ligaments,” there’s no growth that comes to you from God.

You don’t grow when you’re cut off and severed from the head. You’re like a dead branch that just withers, dies and is thrown into the burn pile. What has happened to these false teachers, provides an abiding warning to us all, doesn’t it? And sometimes I think that that is one of the purposes of this perennial problem we have with false teachers and apostates and people that depart from the fellowship is to provide us with a continual warning and a continual check against our own hearts to say, what if that were me? Oh Lord, let it not be.

Let me humble myself before you yet again. Let me examine myself. Let me see what is the basis in the hope, my hope and assurance? Is it Christ and Christ alone? Am I staying close to him and near to him? That self-reflection and self-examination is a good thing?

What happened to these false teachers is a warning. The world and its religion always wants to weaken our bond with Christ, to put distance between us and Christ in order to hopefully, fully and finally to sever us from Christ, to be as they are, to join them in their folly and their shame. And the way the world does this is through its many forms of false religion, by its doctrines and by its representatives who come to us like an army of false teachers.

 The world just comes repeatedly reasserting the former relationship that it had with us. It’s offended that we’re no longer walking in lock step with them and try to yank the ties and tug the bonds that they used to have and pull us back to themselves. And so we must resist.

And what we’re going to learn today is how to resist. We have to stay close to Christ and stay connected to his body. And so one way to do that is by understanding what’s at stake with the false teachers. We have to remind each other and exhort each other day after day, as long as it’s called today, to continue in the truth.

Let me give you several particular truths that come out of this text and here’s the first if you’re taking notes. First of all, this was something we need to remind ourselves and each other all the time. Number one, God severed us from the world. God severed us from the world or if you prefer, God cut us off from the world. He cut us off. He broke the bond, the connection we had to the world.

Let me just give you the bottom line up front here. Reckon your connection to the world as cut, the tie is completely broken. Your bond with the world as severed. There is no more bond with the world for you. And here’s why he says it at the very beginning of verse 20. If you have died, or we could say since you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world.

In Greek, that’s called a first-class conditional. The way it’s structured and the tenses of the verbs there. But it’s a first-class conditional and that means that from the author’s point of view, we are to assume this to be true for the sake of argument. So since you have died with Christ, that is how we can legitimately think about ourselves. Since we have died with Christ, and then assuming death with Christ is true of us, he has us consider our death specifically as a deadness to the elementary principles of the world.

Now, just to remind you of what he means by that expression, the elementary principles of the world, you may remember, we already saw this expression back in verse 8. We just read it here at the beginning of the sermon. Paul cautioned against that dominant philosophy of his age, which is, he says, according to the elementary principles of the world and the false systems of worship that emerged from those elementary principles.

 We have them in our day. We understand it as evolutionary philosophy, scientism, all of those types of things, but for them it took a different shape and a different form. The term, ta stoicheia, refers to the rudimentary elements of any subject, the basic facts that prepare someone to have a working knowledge in any field.

So in grammar it the stoicheia would be the ABC’s. In music, stoicheion refers to the musical scale. In physics, ta stoicheia are the four basic elements, earth, air, fire, water. So fundamental stuff, basic stuff, basic facts. Now Paul is not, obviously, he’s not saying that as Christians we’re suddenly dead to the ABC’s or to the musical scale.

Now, some certainly sound as if they are dead to the musical scale. You are alive to music, beloved. You simply need to learn it. You need to learn the scales, but I digress. Paul is not saying here that Christians are suddenly dead to basic facts like ABC’s, musical scales, physics.

The elementary principles of the world meant something very particular to Paul and to his Gentile audiences. Elementary principles had religious implications, you may remember, recall that we learned about this back in verse 8. For the Gentile Pagan religious thinkers, behind the physical elements of the world, earth, air, fire, water, there were intelligent spiritual beings at work.

Some people literally worship sun, moon, planets, stars as deities, but also common, very common, was the belief that gods were associated with the physical elements of the world and they were behind them, directing them, controlling them, and either using them for our good and our blessing or for our harm.

 Philo of Alexandria said, the sea they call Neptune, he air they call Juno, Fire, Vulcan, the Sun, Apollo, the moon, Diana, the evening star, Venus, Lucifer, they call Mercury. And people paid homage to this pantheon of gods. They gave sacrifices, meal offerings, wine, to the deities, as if the gods eat and drink.

They wanted to secure good harvests, have a lot of children, gain victory in war, ward off sicknesses, evil spirits, trouble. You know, we got the same exact concerns today. We don’t offer money to statues that we bow down to, but you know what we do offer? We enslave ourselves to our employers, with more time so we make more money so that we can ward off all the same stuff.

Money is our green God today, and many people, to get money will enslave themselves and do all kinds of nonsense, living completely out of balance in order to gain it, because they don’t trust God, because they don’t have a father in heaven who assures them, don’t worry about these things. I got them all under control.

So Paul tells the Colossians here, having died with Christ, that means, you’re dead to all that nonsense too. Isn’t that good news? You’re free. Old religion no longer has a hold on us. What once bound us in ignorance and error and outright lies and deception, we’re dead to all that former idolatry, and our consciences are set free.

This isn’t the only place in Paul’s writing that he uses this concept of death with Christ to make really important points for us about our freedom, to portray the finality of the end of an old tie and breaking of an old bond that now sets us free to walk into our newness of life.

In Romans 6:8 through 12, Paul uses slavery as a metaphor. He says you died with Christ verse 8, so you’re dead to sin. You’re liberated from sins tyranny. You no longer have to obey its lust. Sin is no longer slave master over you. You’ve been set free. You walk in glorious freedom. Enjoy it. You no longer have to be defiled. You no longer have to obey the defiling lusts of the body, no longer have to succumb to temptation.

The world and its religion always wants to weaken our bond with Christ, to put distance between us and Christ.” Travis Allen

You’re free, you’re strong, you’re powerful in God, in Christ, and the Spirit strengthens you and he protects you. You can participate in your own sanctification with him because you’re set free. You’re dead to your old master.

Romans 7:1-6, he uses the metaphor again to speak of another way that Christians have died, and he uses the imagery of the death of a spouse. In the event of a death of a spouse that ends the marriage covenant, it frees the living one from the laws concerning marriage, no longer having to obey the dictates of the role of the husband or the role of the wife, whatever it is concerning marriage.

And in the same way the Christian has died to the law, is no longer married to the law. There’s nothing wrong with the law. The problem with the law is not a problem with the law. The problem with the law is a problem with us in our fall. Due to our sinful corruption. Though we were married to the law, those external commands and ordinances could not bear fruit to life for us, but bore fruit only to death.

Our sin nature took what was intended for life and blessedness and goodness and distorted it and turned it right upside down, so that we bore fruit to death, because sin within us took the good command and just run it into the ground. But now, having died in Christ to the external dictates of the law, all those external dictates of the law are now in our hearts, and we obey internally in the new way of the Spirit.

And we love to walk in the path of God’s commands, because he set our heart free, and we bear fruit of life to God, and we enjoy it and we love it. F.F. Bruce makes these same connections and he repeats a basic point, saying over and over in his writing, he says, “Death severs the bond.” I love that, death severs the bond.

Then he says this, “As death severs the bond which binds a slave to his master, as death severs the bond which binds a wife to her husband, here death severs the bond which binds a subject to his ruler. So death with Christ has severed the bond which bound us to the service of the principalities and the powers.” End Quote.

We just saw this in verse 15, in death, Christ triumphed over death. In death and through death he disarmed the rulers and the authorities, the ones who wanted to put him to death. He used their own tool to disarm them. He made a mockery of them. He rode through the streets of the capitol in that victors’ chariot in triumph.

And so Bruce comes back and he asks this question, “Why then should we go on submitting these rules imposed by these powers?” It’s rhetorical. What are we doing? Why are we submitting to these things? What is the key to enjoying this triumph in Christ, this freedom in him as we step over slain enemies, as we’re now to be unafraid of conquered rulers and authorities who are now bound by Christ and chained at the neck and led, pre, in procession behind him?

What is the key to enjoying this? You know what, it’s pretty simple, we must believe, we must rest. Rest in the truth. We rest in the truths that Paul introduced to us in Colossians 2:12. We rest in the truth of our doctrine of union with Christ. We realize that we have been buried with him in baptism, and Paul is now working out the implications.

We have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, and thus you’re no longer enslaved to them. You’re free to disobey them, if I put it that way. So for the Colossians, that meant they could disobey the gods, Neptune, Juno, Vulcan, Apollo, Diana, Venus, Mercury. They can ignore all the priests from all the temples of the gods.

They didn’t have to listen to the voices of those prophets. They didn’t have to feel the pressure, cave to the pressure of their many, many disciples. These disciples that didn’t walk around like their priests and the prophets, but you know what they look like? Neighbors, family members, friends, coworkers, business partners. They didn’t have to obey any of that anymore.

They didn’t have to obey, for that matter, circumcision either. They didn’t have to observe all the Jewish feasts and festivals and new moons, Sabbaths. Now that Christ, the substance and the reality has come, Paul says we’re set free. And we’re set free not in an unrestrained liberty, that is actually an enslavement to passions and desires and lusts. No, that’s not liberty. That’s enslavement of a different kind.

Paul says we’re set free to follow him. We’re set free to do his will. And so we come to a second truth, number two: God frees us from the world. God frees us from the world by uniting us to the death of Christ. God severed the tie of idolatry that bound us to the world. But you’ll never enjoy the freedom that God secured for you if you can’t see that the cage door is open.

 If you’re still wandering around in your old cell, if you’re following all the orders barked by those devilish guards. And that was the Colossian problem, at least for some of them. To enjoy the severed bond, you got to see it, you’ve got to notice it, you’ve got to be aware of it. You got to walk around in it and the Colossians, listen, they were not seeing it.

That’s where Paul gets their attention in verses 20 to 21. “If you’ve died with Christ, to the elementary principles of the world, why, as though you’re living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees: Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.”

I mentioned earlier that conditional, if you died with Christ, it’s a first-class conditional, so it’s assumed to be true for the sake of the argument, it can be translated since you’ve died with Christ, and that is a legitimate way to translate this, but it’s not the best translation here.

 In view of the context, the best translation is what we find in this LSB and many of your Bibles, the translators rightly decided to stick with the, if you died, instead of the, since you died. The, if, raises a question in the mind. That’s really what Paul’s trying to do here.

The translators rightly understand that Paul is calling the Colossians to stop and to think, to examine their own behavior, to think about their thinking. He’s calling them to ask themselves, why they keep submitting to worldly decrees. I mean, aren’t those decrees dead to them? Because if those decrees are living to them and abiding and they still have that enslavement that has never been broken; well, they might want to examine whether or not they are in the faith.

And so Paul says, I believe better of you. I know you’re in the faith. And so examine, why are you doing this? Paul’s kind of chiding them. He’s loving about it, but he’s clearly confronting them. He’s very clearly correcting them. And you can even kind of hear in his voice, a pleading, not the disappointment of like a scolding, sinful scolding parent or something like that.

No, it’s more like the pleading of a, of a father who wants to see his children walk rightly and really know the freedom that the father, our father God has provided. Come on, Colossians, come on, Christians, if you’ve died to this world, why do you keep living as if you belong to this world?

You’re not even putting up a fight. You’re just rolling over, just giving in. Submitting to their decrees. The verb translated, submitting to its decrees, is a, it’s actually shorter than that in the Greek. It’s dogmatizō, has to do with obeying the rules, or you can hear, dogma in there.

It’s following the dogmas, submitting to the decrees and the dictates, three of which Paul states concretely there in verse 21, all of which you can see our prohibitions, restrictions on freedom. That’s always the way with false religion, with worldly religion. It’s all about the, no.

Some say Paul is quoting the false teachers there in verse 21, but it seems more likely that he’s caricaturing them. He’s stating their positions fairly, but by stating them starkly, as he has here, he reveals the essence of these dictates, the essence of these rules, and he shows these rules to be ridiculous and petty and bossy, frankly.

In fact, he’s kind of portraying them as stern, strict, inflexible and he does that by using an error subjunctive here, which is a very strong way of putting this tense, hands off this, touch not that, touch not this, forbidden, forbidden, forbidden. A bunch of scolding in false religion.

The common denominator in each of these rules in verse 21 notice has to do with what we touch, what we come into contact with, what goes into us, or what we handle. The rules you can see are not about food and drink only. Obviously the second one is, but really it has more to do with like ritual defilement and religious purity, holiness regulations.

You may be tempted to ask, how can Christians violate Christian freedom to accommodate dictates of false religion and submit to their defilement rules and their holiness laws? It’s easier than we might think, right? Really is.

I remember walking on the streets of Hong Kong with a dear Christian friend of mine who was born in Singapore, and he was raised in a Confucian home with Confucian traditions and ancestor worship and all kinds of Eastern spirituality. And we were walking in Hong Kong and about to enter into this massive Buddhist temple complex, one that my friend visited when he was young.

And when I saw my friend hesitate at the threshold of the temple complex, still troubled in his conscience, as to whether he could in good conscience enter the premises of these dark spiritual forces and powers that he once submitted to. It caused me to pause and take notice and wonder how many things in my own time, my own culture, I’m blind to.

He’s a seasoned pastor and his conscience still troubled him. False religion still had a hold on him, and he still heard those voices. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. My friend knew the truth that he died in Christ to all these old idols, these spiritual influences that still troubled him, haunted his conscience, howled at him with probations, fears, anxieties, restrictions.

He knew that he still needed to mature, to get stronger, live consistently, could, according to the implications of his death with Christ to all of those old ways. My friend knew about himself, understood that about himself. I wonder, do you know that about yourself? Or are you unaware of the bonds that this world and its religious culture and religious traditions and religious expectations, it’s taboos and mores that they try to pressure you with?

To refuse to be dictated to by the false teachers and false religion, to refuse to live by the rhythms and the patterns of Pagan religious ritual and calendar observances and the control of your time and cultural celebration and life priority. To live by distinctively Christian priorities, which set us free to provide regular church attendance and regular instruction and keep us connected to the head who is Christ and growing in the church.

None of that happens without cost, does it? Think about our day and our time. In an age dedicated to the academy and the university, dictated to by politics and media by the medical industrial complex, we don’t have to obey the self-appointed rulers and authorities of this age when they crossover out of their lane and into ours and speak about moral issues and conscience.

If they command our morality and try to bind our conscience, we are free to disobey them. This was tested for churches during COVID, as I know many of you remember. Rulers and authorities of the medical industrial complex became pretty bossy at that time, often getting out of their lane, often dictating which institutions were essential or not essential.

In many places church were deemed non-essential and they were put under onerous restrictions as secular authorities said how people could worship and when they could worship and if and when and how they could enter and exit the church and where they could sit and if they could sing or not.

These authorities became so emboldened that they exceeded their demand to keep distance from one another. And they began to say, neighbor love means we must wear masks on our faces and inject vaccines into our bodies. Now, listen, I’ll tell you right now. You’re free to come in here with a mask on.

I’m going to say, what are you doing with a mask on? Is it a Halloween mask or what? I don’t know, what’s going on with you. You’re free to put a vaccine in your body. If you think it’s going to be beneficial to you. You’ve got freedom to do that. Well, we’re protesting here.

It’s when it turns into a religious obligation. Does what we wear or what we put into our bodies have implications for sin and righteousness and whether we love or not? Listen, there’s some truth in that, right? The drug addict who keeps on pumping heroin or some substance into his veins is loving only himself, and he’s creating a real havoc for everybody else around him, isn’t he?

There are some women who I would appreciate if they would concern what they wear on their bodies, so they don’t lead other men to gawk and to leer lustfully. For that matter, there are men who could dress more appropriately as well. But does what we wear, what we put in our bodies, have implications for sin and righteousness? Does it dictate whether we are loving or not loving? Sometimes.

But I will tell you the medical establishment does not have the moral authority granted by God to command the Christian conscience. In this case, the medical establishment did believe it had the authority to dictate the conscience. That said, though, I don’t know about your home, but Doctor Fauci never showed up at my home, in that I know of, anyway.

But he never followed anyone that I know of to the store. See if they’re masked up, wagging his finger in their face. No, the pressure came from those who are more proximate to us, closer to us. The pressure came from familiar faces, the general public, fearful family members, left-leaning coworkers, college students, university students.

There were dictates of authority from on high, but those dictates and the pressure didn’t come directly to us from on high, but actually they trickled down through the levels of society so that we were pressured by family and friends to cater to their fears, to submit to the dictates of their anxieties, to defer to their impious expectations and godless priorities and their ill-informed consciences.

COVID may seem like a long, long time ago, but how quickly we have forgotten what that felt like and how easily we can submit to the same impious dictates of other people and we do it all the time and rather blithely.

Let me give you a common example, so common it’s perhaps invisible to most of us. Sports games, sporting tournaments are often scheduled on Sundays. Some Christians seem either ignorant of this or worse, they’re okay with sinning against God by prioritizing sporting events over the Lord’s Day observances.

Some say, okay I know it’s sin, but I’d rather not give something as mundane as sports priority over worship. I know it’s not right, but I don’t want my kids to let the team down. They’re on the team and the coach says practice on Sunday or play on Sunday, and if you don’t, you’re going to let the team down. I don’t want to do that. I’m conflicted.

They feel pressure from the coaches or from other parents. Grandparents don’t want the parents of grandkids to see them as judgmental or unloving for not attending their sporting events. And I just have to ask, what gives coaches and league officials authority over the Lord’s Day?

I remember some time back watching a documentary or listening to an interview with believe he was the commissioner of the NFL, and he was very overt in saying, Sundays used to be for church. Sundays are now for the NFL. That’s religious, beloved. That’s an affront. It’s a direct assault.

We’re far from the days of Eric Little, the Scottish Olympic sprinter who refused to run on the Lord’s Day in the 1924 Summer Olympics. One hundred years ago, Eric Little was honored for his stance. They made a movie about it called Chariots of Fire. Some of you may have seen, it might be good for families to pull that out and become reacquainted with it.

And by becoming reacquainted, I don’t mean just the movie, I mean with the joyful duty that we have of honoring the Lord’s Day and prioritizing God over modern religious devotion to sport. Again, why do we do this? Is it because we really do regard the coach or the league as having some dictate over our conscience and some authority over us? No.

It just illustrates the tension that we feel, when we cross the traditions of our own time, when we stand up to the dictates of the culture, when we refuse to submit to these patterns and rhythms of the world around us. The intangible consequences for our disobedience are these, we face a cool reception of family members who think that we are too stringent, severe, or strict. They claim that we’re unloving or judgmental.

They’re even tangible consequences of being marginalized and ostracized and sidelined and passed over. Our kids don’t get on the team. They’re looked at with suspicion by the other players. Funny, what they accuse us Christians of is what they themselves are guilty of. They do it to us.

 They’re uncharitable and unmerciful and judgmental and unloving. They don’t like it when you refuse to submit to their preferences, their religious devotion, their idolatries. They don’t like it one bit, and they’re going to make you feel it. But listen, beloved, God has severed us from the world and from the invasive and pervasive pressures of a false religious authority and he did that when he united us to Christ’s death.

We’re free to live for him. We’re free to live for him. Do you realize, his commands are not burdensome, but his commands are freedom. His commands are joy. His commands are blessing and benefit and strength and health and life. So how do we do this? How do we live in this freedom? Let’s just say the real work has been done already. God did it.

God severed us from the world, and he enables us to sever any new bonds that try to wrap themselves around us and try to bind our conscience and bind our hearts. So come to a third point, number three: God protects us from the world.

God protects us from the world, and he does so by telling us the truth about the world around us and its false religious systems and then he teaches us how to apply the truth that he’s revealed with discernment and how to resist these pressures in wisdom. Paul, at verses 22 to 23, he educates our discernment with this critique and this is critique.

This is for our discernment; this is so that we can push back. He says these are matters. These rules deal with everything destined to perish with use, which are in accordance with the commands and teachings of men which are matters having to be sure, a word of wisdom in self-made religion, in self-abasement and severe treatment of the body. But they are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

If we restate that, restate Paul’s critique here, we see that these points are connected with each subsequent point building from the previous one. The dying decrees of dead men are dead on arrival, they have no life and no Christian should submit to them since they are based on false views about the nature of this world, views that originate with men, not with God, which means they have no power in them to save or to sanctify.

That sums it up for us right there, doesn’t it? If it’s got no power to change my life and transform me, why am I listening? Why am I spinning my wheels? Why am I wasting my time? And if we attest every attempt to bind our conscience to religious dictates and rules by what he says in verses 22 to 23, listen, we’re going to live in the freedom of Christ.

The salvation of Christ has set us apart and it’s set us on the path to a progressive sanctification, as we said, a sanctification, a holiness that is to be completed at our final glorification. Since that’s the case, let’s stop submitting to these decrees. And we can do that by applying these same points of critique to the false teachers and the regulations, of false religionists, that they attempt to impose on us.

So whenever anybody comes and tries to pressure you or defraud you or disqualify you or judge you or make you follow their rules or their patterns or submit to their way of living life, just go through this little grid in your mind. We’ll go through it, three points.

Three telltale signs of all false religion. First, watch out for physical temporal rules, that make spiritual eternal claims. Watch out for physical temporal rules, that make spiritual eternal claims. The pressure that the false teachers were putting on the Colossians to follow their rules.

 Paul says, these things deal with everything destined to perish with use. They’re trying to pass these temporary, destined to perish with use, rules off as somehow eternal, spiritual. The word perish here refers to deterioration, disintegration, kind of like the way things fall apart, corrode, decay.

That’s why we bury bodies in the ground because they decay and they don’t smell good. That’s these rules and he adds, they’re destined to perish with use. They’re used up. And he’s referring to the natural way of things, and particularly the natural way with food and drink and the things we take into our bodies, what we consume, what our bodies digest, and then what passes through the other side as waste.

We have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, and thus you’re no longer enslaved to them. You’re free to disobey them.” Travis Allen

So he’s talking about here, any of these dietary laws and cleanliness rules, ritual preparation, ceremonial observance. For the Colossians, this meant abstaining from some foods always, or from all foods for a period of time, fasting, abstaining from alcohol, abstaining from the flesh of animals and those kinds of things.

And not only do physical and material things not matter in the final analysis, but the spiritual and immaterial realities they’re supposed to represent, those too, have passed away with use. They served their purpose. The dietary laws and the cleanliness laws of the Old Testament have been abrogated because Christ showed up. We’re done with them. Go have a ham sandwich, eat some bacon, enjoy it.

Let’s go to Mark Chapter 7. I want to show you something in Mark 7, because Jesus deals with this issue even before Paul addressed it to the Colossians. Jesus dealt with it in one of his many confrontations with the Pharisees and the scribes. After they came and confronted him, he turned to the crowd to teach them about what they just witnessed, what they saw.

Mark 7:14, Scroll down past the confrontation and we’ll go back to that in a second. But in Mark 7:14, “After He called the crowd to Him again, He began to say to them, ‘listen to me, all of you, and understand: there’s nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.’”

Turns out the disciples didn’t get exactly what he was saying right away, and in the moment, and that was commonly the case. And so they required some remedial instructions. So look at verse 17, “When He left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples were asking Him about the parable.

“And He said to them, ‘Are you lacking understanding in this way as well? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart,’” doesn’t affect his immaterial self, “‘but it goes into a stomach and then goes into the sewer?’”

And thus Mark interprets this for us, puts in parentheses, “(Thus He declared all foods clean.)” He goes on to say in verse 20, “That which proceeds out of the man, that’s what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, and sexual immoralities, and thefts, and murders, and adulteries, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

You hear that word defile? Defilement is a religious term. We cannot be defiled religiously by what we eat, drink, put on, nothing physical. It’s what comes out of the heart. All this started when the Pharisees and scribes back at the beginning of chapter Mark 7, trying to take the disciples of Jesus to task because they’ve been eating their bread with defiled hands.

They’re using that religious term defiled to refer to their hands, which sounds really, really bad until you read Mark’s explanation. Defiled hands, that is unwashed. What are they a bunch of mothers now? It wasn’t about hygiene. It was about very strict rules that they came up with about holiness, onerous regulations about hand washing.

Go back to Chapter 7, verse 3. This is a passage that would make Doctor Fauci proud. And Mark writes this, “For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; and when they come from the marketplace, they don’t eat unless they’ve washed themselves; and there are many other things which they’ve received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.” Jesus says none of this,

none of this comports with the actual nature of things. There is no connection between pots and pans and washed hands and unwashed hands and your spirit. Defilement is a term for your spirit, the immaterial self, the heart. It’s not a term that applies to your body parts. No one is defiled by what goes into him, by what comes out of an ungodly heart and that is the issue.

And this brings up another question to ask, which Paul asked, which we also see in Mark 7. So a second point in what we apply whenever we have false teachers and false religion bearing weight upon our consciences, watch out. Second, watch out for human religion that claims divine authority. Watch out for human religion that claims divine authority.

The false teachers tried to pressure the Colossians to submit to rules in accordance with the commands and teachings of men. Men who have no life in themselves but depend for everything on God, even for life itself and breath. There’s no authority there. We can make this really simple, folks. If God didn’t say it, you don’t have to do it.

And that’s not a license for rebellions of the government, okay, I’m not telling you that God gives us commands about that too, right? Submitting to the government authority, paying our taxes, but in religious matters. And boy, there are a lot of politicians that like to get really religious these days. And I’m talking about our own camp, beloved.

In religious matters, we need to distinguish between the rules of men and the rules of God and the authority that men try to assert and try to wrest control of our consciences and the authority that God alone possesses, which he uses to set people free.

So Jesus goes on here in this section, starting in verse 5, and he quotes Isaiah to indict these people. The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, so mighty your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but they eat their bread with defiled hands. That’s how they talked.

And he said to them, rightly did Isaiah prophecy of you hypocrites as it is written. “‘THIS PEOPLE HONOR ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE COMMANDS OF MEN.’ Leaving the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

 Where in Scripture does God command hand washing before eating common meals? It’s a good idea, but is it a command bearing weight on your conscience? What about when you come home from the store? Have to take a bath, wash yourselves? Where in Scripture does God command washing cups, pitchers, copper pots to get the Gentile off of you? Maybe good hygiene, practically speaking, I appreciate a clean kitchen.

But the Pharisees crossed a line when they made their rules a moral issue. When they called unwashed hands defilement. They turned their traditions and their rules into matters of holiness to include or exclude people from God, that’s a big deal, and they’re walking around with a swagger like they owned the place. Woe to them.

God’s way in the gospel is to liberate mankind, not to bind him to rules and regulations, not to prohibit, but to permit. And you need to see that in all of God’s laws and commandments to you, in all Jesus ways, those commands are permitting you to enjoy liberty. Those commands are opening up the door to you for freedom.

So if you look at God’s commands darkly and you see up there an overbearing ogre, you got a problem with your heart. You need to read and understand this great God a bit better than you do now. Finally, a third way to discern the illegitimate pressure coming from false religion and false religious teachers. Watch out for rules that appear wise, but all they do is punish the body to sanctify the soul.

Watch out for rules that appear wise, but all they do is punish the body to sanctify the soul. This final question is the subject of verse 23, about matters having to be sure a word of wisdom. That’s why it’s translated that way in a wooden way here in the LSB as word, a word of wisdom.

It’s the word, Logos, which does mean, word, in many contexts. But here it has a more specific meaning of appearance or reputation, because a Logos, a word, can be a word about somebody, which is really their reputation. That’s how Paul’s using it here. So these are matters having to be sure a reputation for being wise.

Man that Taoism, you ever see those Taoist monks, those Hindus, boy, they really got something there. Those Buddhists, boy, getting away from all things and just kind of really focus on getting in touch with nature. You really appreciate the the really strict Muslim or Jew or, people say that all the time, don’t they, about false religionists, because they have a reputation for wisdom, a reputation for doing wise things.

But Paul goes on to say it’s self-made religion, it’s self-abasement, it’s severe treatment of the body, which is of no value whatsoever against fleshly indulgence. Paul’s final critique cascades here and opens the door to yet another three-fold critique which I’ll, I’ll hit very briefly.

 The rules which do not comport with the true nature of things which do not come from God but from men and have no power to sanctify. It’s because it’s nothing but false adoration and false mortification and false sanctification.

That’s the points here. False adoration, false mortification, false sanctification. False adoration, what Paul calls, self-made religion is that which is self-imposed, often self-willed, self-styled like so much religion today. And I have to hasten to say, to be honest, so much evangelical religion today is self-styled, self-willed, innovative, made-up at the whims of some 20 year old worship leader who was never commanded or directed by God’s word at all.

False mortification, what Paul calls self-abasement. Again, that word, tapeinophrosynē, which we saw back in verse 18, it literally means humility. Usually in a very positive sense, but here in the context it refers to an attempted asceticism, to mortify the flesh by the flesh.

It’s made clear by joining it to a second description about severe treatment of the body. This is asceticism, a strict, harsh treatment of the body that God gave you. To be human is to have great regard not only for our spirit, but also for our flesh, to have regard for this. We’re soulish creatures, which means our spirit interacts with the world around us through a body.

Our spirit is in one place and only one place at one time. It’s here, contained in the body, and it looks out at the world through the eyes, and it listens to the world through the ears. It tastes through the tongue, it feels with the hands, it moves with the feet. We need our body, our spirit needs our body, and our spirit is educated. But what our body brings in.

We have great regard as Christians for our bodies. It’s for those reasons that we don’t mutilate our bodies, fill ourselves from head to toe with tattoos, and try to signal, virtue signal, whatever we care for this temple that God gave us. But here these false religious teachers are instructing them to treat the body severely, to treat it harshly, to deny it its natural needs and natural desires, such as basic things like consuming food and drink.

We find another passage of scripture, not only food and drink, but even sexual desire. In 1 Corinthians 7, there were false teachers telling husbands and wives, stop doing that. Stop doing that. It’s dirty. J.B. Lightfoot explains this strict self-control as the rigorous demands made by the soul on the body.

It’s when the soul of the spirit turns against the body and the body’s like, what gives? I thought you were on my side. Oh my, got a guru telling me that if I do this, I’ll stop lusting. It was Origin, that was said to have emasculated himself because of sexual temptation. Can you imagine? Who could have gotten to that guy? If he’d only read Colossians.

This strictness and severity may seem virtuous. Wow, how holy that guy is because boy, look what he’s doing. Back in my college days in a seminary and there was a guy in our class who in a very humble, austere kind of moving like a, like an elevated kind of transcendent being through our classroom. But he was on a 40 day fast.

Remember that was popular, a bunch of religious leaders doing 40 day fasts. And, and I won’t use his name, but let’s call him dude. I said, dude, stop it. You’re killing yourself. I mean, literally, I’m watching you dying. You’re slumped over in your desk. You can’t pay attention to anything the professor’s saying.

Your wife and your kids need you. And you’re just like this kind of Wraith passing through their life, drawing attention to yourself for your austerity and the severe treatment of the body. Total false religion. You don’t base that on anything in scripture. But he tried to and he tried to bring others into his little cult too.

Seems holy, seems wise, seems like he’s really got a handle on his self-control and self-discipline. It’s really all about himself. It’s the wickedness of pride is what this is. Self-salvation, man centered attempt to do what only God can do. It’s an affront to God’s saving and sanctifying power. Only God has it. And all this results finally in a false sanctification, yet another dead-end attempt to save and sanctify oneself in the power of the flesh. These matters have the appearance of wisdom, but have no value against fleshly indulgence.

So whatever rules are being imposed on you, beloved, anything that you’re being pressured to follow, conform to, live with, if they don’t comport with the nature of things, of spirit, body, material, immaterial, physical, temporal on the one hand and spiritual internal on the other.

If they don’t comport with that, if they don’t come from God, but from men, if they have no power to sanctify and they’re more versions of hands off this, taste not that, touch not this, forbidden, forbidden, forbidden, don’t submit to them, not even for a minute. To do so is to deny your union with Christ, to deny the reality that you have died with Christ and been buried with Christ.

It’s to deny the reality that these dying decrees of dead men have no further claim on you. Don’t live a lie. As we close, I just want to point out what we have been learning today is because Paul has chosen to unpack the implications of our union with Christ that he stated in part in Colossians 2:12, “Having been buried with him in baptism.”

Since we died with Christ, Colossians 2:20, we’re no longer supposed to submit to the dying decrees of dead men. But there’s a second truth that’s wrapped up in our union with Christ in Colossians 2:12, and Paul unpacks the implications of that truth in the next section.

This ever present, forever future reality. You’ve been raised up with him, Colossians 2:12, “through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” It’s not just that you’re dead to this world and its decrees, its religions, it’s that you’re now alive. You are alive, you are set free. You can run in the path of his commands because your heart is filled by his Spirit.

 Look at chapter 3, verse 1, “Therefore,” here it is, “if you’ve been raised up with Christ.” See, there’s the other side of the coin. “If you’ve been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not in the things that are on the earth. For you died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.” and “when Christ, who is our life, is manifested then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.”

 I asked at the beginning, why is it we seem to find it so hard to stop submitting to the decrees of dead men? And the answer for far too many who profess Christ is they don’t seek the things that are above. They don’t continually do that, because the things that are here below are too alluring and captivating and satisfying.

Why do so many sin against the Lord’s Day by going to soccer tournaments and all kinds of tournaments and sporting events and doing things on the Lord’s Day? Why do they do it, because they like it. You’ll only turn from the mundane things of this world and put the pleasures of this world in their proper place.

Not saying don’t go to games, watch game. I’m not saying that. Don’t hear me say that, but don’t let it make you sin. The only way that we’re going to turn away from finding our all, in family approval, cultural approval, social approval, peer pressure, fear of man, the only way we’re going to be free from that is by continually, consistently, intentionally, regularly, as in daily, sometimes hour by hour, seeking the things above, setting our minds on things above, and very decidedly not setting our mind on the things here below, because the things above, they truly are spiritual, eternal, satisfying, setting our hearts free. Let’s pray.

Our Father, we are grateful for how you have secured our salvation and secured our sanctification, and for that matter, our glorification too, because when Christ returns and is manifested, we too are going to appear with Him in glory, and we will be like him because we’ll see Him as He is. Oh, how we long for that day. How we long to be free from the presence of sin and suffering forever and to live in your unabated glory.

We love you, father. We thank you for your kindness to us. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you for giving us such a great Savior in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for giving us the beloved Holy Spirit who has caused us to be born again to a living hope, who has adopted us into the family, who’s united us to Christ. We thank you that He is our indwelling, abiding truth, teacher, comforter, encourager.

We thank you for how he directs us to Christ, to see him in his greatness, in his glory. And Christ would have us gaze upon you, God in His own face, so we could see Your greatness, your wisdom, your power, your kindness, your mercy toward all who believe. We pray that you would solidify us in the truth. Let us never be intimidated by anything around us. Helps us to grow strong, steady, steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Colossians 2:16-19

Well, as we come to our study of God’s Word this morning, like to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Colossians 2:16. Colossians 2:16. And this is where Paul gets direct and confronts the false teachers who have come to trouble the Colossian church. As we have been going through ever since chapter 1 all the way to this very moment, Paul has been preparing the Colossians for exactly this point in the epistle. He’s been showing them the security of their salvation in Christ and the superiority of Christ and his salvation.

 And so now he writes to these Christians who are deeply rooted in Christ, who possess absolutely everything. They lack nothing whatsoever. And having secured them in a position of strength, he now turns to confront those troublers of the faith, confront the false teachers. He intends by this to expose their practical and their theological errors and he starts right here in Colossians 2:16 and continues through the end of the chapter.

You’ll see in your Bible, Colossians 2:16, starts with a therefore, therefore pointing back, building off of the platform that he has already set. That is to say, therefore, since you are circumcised, that is to say, regenerate by the Spirit; since you have been buried with Christ in baptism and raised up with him, since you are a participant in resurrection life, since you are completely forgiven, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

 And since God has done all of this and accomplished all of these great works through Christ, and he did so, by the way, when Christ seemed to be at his weakest point in his utter humiliation, God accomplished his greatest work. That is to say, that it was through death, not any death, but the shameful death of crucifixion on a cross, stripped before the entire watching world.

God through Christ, made a mockery of all of his enemies. He put sin to shame. He put to death, death in the death of Christ, thereby triumphing over all rulers and all authorities. “Therefore,” verse 16, “no one is to judge you in food or drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, going into detail about visions he has seen, being puffed up for nothing by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with the growth that is from God.

“If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees: ‘Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch?’ Which deal with everything destined to perish with use, which are in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men; which are matters having, to be sure, a word,” or another translation is, the appearance, “of wisdom in self-made religion, and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but of no value against fleshly indulgence.”

 Paul is here, in this section, developing the warning that he has already laid down in chapter 2, verse 8, where he says, “See to it that no one takes you captive.” And here he is identifying these false teachers through the lens or through the optic of their errors, which are practical in nature and theological in nature. And they really kind of emerge from both Jewish and Pagan influences.

So there’s kind of this synchronistic blend of Jewish and Pagan influence, and what’s apparent in these commands, as he’s identifying these false teachers, he’s calling these Colossian Christians to take note and to exercise their discernment, to have their eyes open, to be watchful, and to stand firm.

In verse 16, as you saw when we read, and then again in verse 18, there are two imperatives there, and both of those imperatives are stated in the third person. “Let no one judge you” and “let no one keep on defrauding you.” He’s not in this section wagging his finger at the false teachers per se. He’s not scolding them.

False teachers are going to be there. Bad guys are going to exist. People who lead you astray are always going to be out there. So he’s not interested in speaking directly to them. No, he speaks to the Colossians and he doesn’t speak to them, notice as if they’re hapless victims, he speaks to them as if they have access to all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ, because they do.

He speaks to them as believers and he equips them with the resources that they need to be discerning and watchful and strong, which is why in verse 20 he comes across maybe a little bit as if he’s chiding them, just a little bit. Why are you submitting to the archaic, antiquated decrees of your former life? Come on folks, come on, get on with walking in Christ already. You have everything. You have your fullness in him. Get on with it.

So he chides them just a little bit in that second section, starting in verse 20 through verse 23, but at the same time, we have to see here that as a pastor, as a man who’s familiar with his own heart, his own flesh, he’s not entirely unsympathetic to the alluring nature of false teaching, because it is, as he’s been saying, it is enticing. It is persuasive on its face, anyway.

In verse 16, the heresy presents itself in the religious forms that these Colossian believers have been used to, coming from their religious backgrounds. It’s the culture, is speaking to the culture, and it taps into what they’re already familiar with and used to. So religious fasting and diet and food and drink and observances of holidays, these are Pagan rituals and observances. But then these also had a Jewish character.

So they seem to come now with that Jewish form, the stamp of divine authority, very powerful influences, speaking to them in the language that they know, appealing to practices that they have been practicing all of their lives and for generations past. In verse 18, the LSB translates the word, self-abasement, but it’s actually the word for humility and humility, it’s used again in verse 23, as well.

It’s humility. He’s pointing out the apparent superficial; what they can see, what appears before their eyes. He’s pointing out the humility of these false teachers and their followers. In spite of how they tend to draw attention to themselves and their religiosity, they also have the appearance of humility.

They walk around with a sanctified air, as if they float above everybody else. But they seem so humble and so sincere, and they speak in depth of spiritual experiences and communing with the divine and by the right understanding of ritual that prepares them to enter into an even deeper and an even more meaningful communion with God.

Very alluring, enticing, powerful stuff. What was perhaps most enticing of all, an ever-present means of persuading people to join, comes in verses 20 to 23, with the promise of overcoming sins, freedom from enslaving lusts, troublesome temptations, nagging habits, and there are people all over the Internet trying to teach you how to get rid of your habits, how to overcome your habits, how to live a better life, how to get stuff done. It’s the same stuff here.

Better rituals, they say, better preparation for a deeper communion with God, this is going to set you free. So ritual observance, accessible religion that I can do, which gives me the deepest connection with God and also sets me free from my sins. What’s not to like? Well, Paul says, first there are some very serious practical errors which he outlines in verses 16 to 17, and then theological errors which he gets into in verses 18 and 19.

So first, the practical errors and you can write down this for your point, number one: False teachers live in the shadows. False teachers live in the shadows. Looking at those verses again, “Therefore, no one is to judge you in food or drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”

Obviously, you can see there, end of verse 17, you got a contrast between substance, with what he calls a mere shadow of what is to come. The shadow is the form, and he describes that form in concrete terms back in verse 16, of practices, observances, things that they can do. Those are shadows, those are rituals.

That’s the form, but the substance, end of verse 17, is Christ. Now, if this sounds to some of you, this whole form substance language, sounds kind of like Plato’s theory of forms and his famous cave analogy, contrasting material things on earth with true realities of heaven; the earthly being, the mere shadow of the heavenly reality, that is not what’s going on here.

 When Paul speaks of shadows, even shadows at their biblical best, dietary laws, observing holy days, these all have outlines of a coming reality, and now that that reality has arrived, now that the body that’s casting the shadow has come on the scene, there is no need to practice any of those old forms any longer.

Literally, the end of verse 17, Paul doesn’t use the word substance, don’t find that term. He uses the word, body, soma. And then we supply for interpretive clarity the body which is clearly, of Christ, or as the LSB translators have very accurately put it, interpreting it for us, “the substance belongs to Christ.”

The substance is of Christ. The body is of Christ. The body casting the shadow, it’s Christ. Not his physical body per se, but it’s the reality about Christ. All that he is, his work, his person, everything. It’s Christ. He’s the one casting the long shadow across the landscape of redemptive history.

But now that he is here, the shadows that he cast are disappearing and they are being ignored and erased all together in the bright glory of his presence. Therefore, Paul says because of that no one is to judge you, or more literally, third person imperative, let no one judge you, as in, do not allow it Christian, don’t let it happen, resist it, refuse it, stand firm on the substance, on the reality in Christ.

Now, again, going back to the practical matters of verse 16, whether eating or drinking or of calendar observances and the annual festivals and the monthly new moons and the weekly Sabbaths, let’s kind of get a handle on what Paul is talking about here, what he’s referring to a little bit more precisely if we can, because there’s not a lot of detail given in here, but it’s enough for us to piece together kind of the essence of this error. He didn’t get too specific.

If he gets too specific, then it kind of relegates it to the dustbin of history, but when he principalizes it and talks about characteristics of this error, well, lo and behold, we can take those principles and apply them throughout history to our own time, to our own issues.

So on these matters of eating and drinking, he may be referring to Jewish practice since the Law of Moses did address the distinction between clean and unclean foods. But then when he adds, and he joins it to this issue, the reference to drinking, you know, there are very few restrictions in the Old Testament on drinking apart from just wisdom principles that would govern any kind of drinking of any fermented or alcoholic thing.

But that’s really not what he’s addressing here. Priests should not drink wine or strong drink, Leviticus 10:9 says. We see that that’s a specific prohibition limited to Tabernacle service. What happened right before Leviticus 10:9? Nadab and Abihu were consumed in the flame of God as he judged them for offering strange fire.

Some commentators, some interpreters, think that perhaps through a little bit of imbibing before they went into the Tabernacle, maybe they were a little careless in how they offered that fire and it made it a strange fire, something unfamiliar, something that was inappropriate and alien and not at all what God had commanded. Perhaps it’s the alcohol that addled their brain.

So as a specific prohibition on Tabernacle service, the priests were not to enter in, during their time of service, having had wine or strong drink. There’s also a Nazarite vow in Numbers chapter 6, but that applies to the duration of the vow, not to the entirety of one’s life.

So what is this first reference? It seems at first glance to refer to Jewish dietary laws. We kind of read that way because we see also the, the feasts and the new moons and the Sabbaths. So we kind of read backward and say, well, food and drink also must be talking about Jewish dietary laws, but really this is far more likely referring to provincial religious practices such as fasting, abstaining from certain foods especially, and you can find records of this, abstaining from animal foods and fermented drinks.

 Because they were preparing to commune with the divine. So they want to purge themselves of any animal stuff inside them. Because remember they had views of deity or of life energy and life force in the animal. They, the Gentiles, used to drink blood to take in the animal’s spirit and its strength and its characteristics and its properties. So they would abstain, fast, purge before they entered into or sought the prophetic wisdom of the deity. We’re going to come back to that more in the next point because it’s really in the next set of practices that we see this influence.

He says, no one is to judge you, though he comes back and says, “no one is to judge you in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.” Now that is a Jewish pattern, those terms, festival, heortē, and new moon, neomēnia, and then the word Sabbath, sabaton, sabbatas.

We find those terms listed together in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament listed just like this and in the same order in Ezekiel 45:17 and Hosea 2:11. We see them again in reverse order inn 1 Chronicles 23:31, 2 Chronicles 2 verse 4 and 2 Chronicles 31 verse 3, these same terms used in order, the first two references in the same order, as we find here, the next three references, in reverse order. So what are they?

The word festival, heortē is also accurately translated as feast. So this refers to one of Israel’s three annual feasts, the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread in the spring, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, which is 50 days after Passover, and then the Feast of Booths or called Tabernacles, which is observed in the fall. So this first term refers to things that govern the annual calendar of the people of God.

 Second term, new moon, neomēnia refers to the monthly feasts that were prescribed in numbers 28:11 to 15; sacrifices, propitiatory, but also celebratory, offered on the first day of the new moon, the first day of the month. Third term Sabbaths in the plural here refers to the weekly pattern of rest that God had established in the world’s very first week.

So these two terms, new moon, Sabbaths, they govern monthly and weekly calendars. So that’s the pressure coming from these false teachers. It had to do with religious preparation required by following their prescribed religious calendar, which frankly controlled people, requiring their participation in weekly and monthly and yearly rituals and observances of religious feasts and festivals and high holy days.

For the deepest communion with the divine, which we’re going to come to in verse 18, and for actual power to mortify the sins of the flesh, which we’re going to come to in verses 20 to 23. They said fasting is required, forgoing food and drink in preparation for religious observances, in preparation to keep the calendar, this is required.

Now let’s back up, talk a little bit about what’s at stake in the observance of these feasts, these festivals, just to make sure we’re understanding this biblically, clearly. I mentioned earlier, only in passing, that God established the pattern of the seven day week in Genesis chapter 1. We know from Genesis 1 he created everything in six days. He rested on the seventh day. Genesis 2:3 says that, “He blessed the seventh day.”

 Because of that, he sanctified it, because on that day he rested from all his work which God created and made. So he sets a pattern for us, six days for work, one day for rest. At the first giving of the law at Sinai, in Exodus chapter 20, verse 8. That’s the reason that is given for Sabbath observance is for the sake of human rest, verses 9 and 10, for which God set a pattern of rest in verse 11 by ceasing from his own work on the Sabbath.

Don’t let anyone take you to task for bucking the national idolatries to live for freedom in Jesus Christ. ” Travis Allen

In fact, not only were God’s people to rest, but anybody in the employ of God’s people were to rest, including animals, beasts of burden, they too, were to rest. Take the yoke off the oxen, let it graze on the Sabbath. Care for man, care for animals, cessation of labor, rest, focus on God. What God gave to mankind in the creation week, he gave not by way of ordinance, command; gave it by way of pattern, by his own example.

The principle of Sabbath rest, times for working, times for resting, was given for our blessing, and not just for the people of God, for the entirety of all people, the entire world. Not only that, but God gave the lights in the expanse of the sky, Genesis 1:14 says, to separate the day from the night, but also for signs and for seasons and for days and for years.

So God is bringing order and organizing the weekly, monthly, and annual calendar to mark time, which promotes work and provides for rest. At the second giving of the law, after Israel had come out of Egypt, wandered in the wilderness, there they are in the plains of Moab and it’s the second generation of Israel, because God killed off the first generation and raised those children up. And as that second generation, those children were about to enter into the promised land. Well, they, they needed a reiteration, a recapitulation of the law.

They were just little kids when they came out of Egypt and some of them not even born. They needed to hear it before they entered into the promised land and so when Moses reiterates the law in Deuteronomy 5:12, he cites a different reason for rest, he says, remember verse 15, “You were a slave in Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.”

 What God had given to his people to promote their work and to increase their productivity, their efficiency, and to provide for their rest ever since Creation week. He gave them a simple calendar to follow to guide their weeks and months and years, and provided all along the way every single week for their rest and their refreshment.

But then they enter into Egypt and it’s because of enslavement that came upon them, that good pattern of the calendar was abolished by the Egyptians. For the Israelites, the good order in the life that God had prescribed was interrupted by their slavery. Their Egyptian overlords controlled the calendar, dictated their weeks, months, years.

For 400 years, slavery disrupted their routines. Slavery robbed them of their rest. Slavery gave exhaustion, not refreshment, stole their peace, it buried them with painful labor, punishing toil. God ended that at the Exodus. He broke the chains of slavery and he set his people free.

He delivered Israel from slavery, and then when he gave the law, he restored the joy of that calendar. Holy feasts gave them meaningful festivals, weekly Sabbaths, monthly new moon feasts, the annual feasts, the monthly new moon sacrifices dedicated that whole month to God. His annual feasts commemorated events of the Exodus. Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread explicitly refers to their Exodus from Egypt. The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost celebrates their first harvest.

The Feast of Booths or Tabernacles commemorated the time after the Exodus when they had to live in tents and booths and wandered in the wilderness, but God was there to protect them, even though they did not live in a city with walls. Where they were, a people nomadic, moving all the time and living in tents, he provided for all their needs and protected them from their enemies.

So each annual feast, it says something, it promotes their reflection and their remembrance and provokes thanksgiving to God for their deliverance and for his bountiful provision, for his protecting them, because he kept them alive. And by these formal times of thanksgiving, God sanctified his people.

Each and every observance required propitiatory sacrifices to atone for their sins, to cover over their sins, that allowed them to draw near to God, to offer sacrifices of praise, and to worship him out of love from the heart. What Israel, what the Jews failed to realize is this, that that backward look was also meant to prompt a forward look.

The physical observance was intended to signify a spiritual need and a reality that they needed sacrifices to deal fully and finally with their sins, to provide a full salvation, to bring them into God’s pattern of work and rest, productivity and refreshment, and that, Paul says, that is what has come in Christ.

So if we have no further need to continue observances of any religious calendar, let alone the best observances, biblical observances of the Jewish calendar, since all rest and refreshment are met in Christ, then all of this preparatory fasting that the false teachers are promoting, all this religious calendar observance with the false teachers were demanding, that all goes out the window as well.

Listen, this is a problem in all the places that Paul visited, because it was by controlling the religious calendar that the Pagan priests and now these false teachers, it’s how they control the people as well. When you think about it, it’s a pretty powerful thing, isn’t it, to direct the times and the seasons for a people.

Pretty powerful thing to control the calendar and command people’s consciences by a calendar to govern their weeks, months, years, for individuals, for families, for entire nations. Daniel praised God in Daniel 2:21, because he recognized that God, and God alone has the sovereign prerogative and authority and power to set the times and the seasons.

He thinks of God as the creator who made all things for man’s good, in his own glory, and he set times in the calendar. But then in Daniel 7:25 we find that it is the Antichrist, who will intend, to make changes in seasons and in law.

The beast seeks to control the calendar, to govern weeks and months and years, to control nations, families, individuals. He wants total, complete control and that is exactly what Paul is confronting and exposing here as the nature of these false teachers, as a telltale sign of what animates their practices.

He talks about here, what’s at stake in dietary control, talks about what’s at stake truly in the religious pressure of fasting and the social pressure of controlling the religious calendar. Paul wants these Phrygian Gentiles, just like the Galatian Gentiles to their East, Paul wants these Colossians, the Phrygians in the Lycus Valley of Laodicea, Hierapolis, as well. He wants them to see that all these Judaizing tendencies and all these false converts to Christ and all these false teachers, listen, they’re living in the shadows.

 They’re not living by the substance of Christ. They’re grabbing on and trying to hold on to something that is elusive and fading and passing. They’re trying to make much of that. He told the Galatians this, but now having known God, or rather “having been known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you want to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years.”

That’s a more abstract way of saying the same thing he said in Colossians 2:16, And he says, “I fear for you,” I fear for you. So why would any Christian give in to this pressure? What explains the attraction to return to this kind of slavery? Well, for one thing, these practices have the appearance of self-control and self-discipline, but because of the social and cultural pressures to conform to these dietary or preparatory or calendar observances, we have to understand that whatever is enforced upon you from the outside and created by social pressure, cultural pressure, it’s actually rooted in the flesh.

 It’s rooted in the fear of man. And so you might find it hard to believe, but it is surprisingly easy to conform oneself to these social norms, to give oneself over to ritualistic observance, appearing religious on the outside where others can see, where you can virtue signal, where you can posture and present and front up. That is far easier than the practice of true religion, because true religion happens on the inside, comes out on the outside.

But it happens on the inside; it comes forth from the heart, a heart that only God can see and know. So yeah, you can make a good show in public by your ritualistic observance, by your fasting, by your preparatory things, by your calendar observances, but the realities in Christ and Christ goes to the heart and deals with the issues of the heart.

Practically, there was also a good for the Colossians and really for anybody who succumbs to these things in a society, in a culture, it’s practically to participate in the in-vogue religion in any given culture that allows you to do what everybody else does to make connections.

It provides opportunities, opens up business opportunities, allows for social advancement. Gets your family connected, get your kids known by the other parents in the neighborhood and all the coaches and everybody else, and you can then have opportunities to advance, to prosper. Get your kids into a good college, education, money; that’s going on in their day too. Same thing as ours.

Some of you may still be thinking though, good thing we don’t have this problem today. You might want to think again because this pertains to what we live with every single day. Consider who it is or what it is, that exercises the most influence and authority over the schedule and determines the calendar.

You know what religious practice dominates our country, don’t you? What determines times and seasons for Americans? A big mystery. What season are we in now? Wrapping up basketball season, or, if you prefer, hockey season. Now that the Avalanches aren’t there, you’re not paying any attention to it, I know. In the middle of baseball season right now, right? Some are salivating already over the start of football season.

These are determinative over how we think about the calendar and about the year. And you just assume it. You’re unaware. You’re like a fish swimming in water that doesn’t feel wet. So you too, swimming through this culture, don’t feel how American your religion is and how much it determines your thinking, how much it encroaches upon your thinking.

You know, what else determines our calendar. I’m not saying all these things are inherently evil, okay, but be on your guard, because they can be. They can lead to great compromise. Politics, also very religious in this country, every two years, every four years. Where’s all our attention devoted? Where’s all our angst developed from? Politics. Talking heads on TV, media, radio, whatever, it’s religion.

Every two years, every four years, we’re tempted to put all of our faith in man and vote in, the next Prince who’s going to provide for every man his vine and every man his fig tree. You know, it also determines the seasons, education, school years. We just submit, succumb to it.

Now, I’m not saying go rebel against everything in your culture. I’m not trying to tell you that. But listen, there is a lot of money wrapped up in our religious practices. There’s a lot of control that is exerted over families, a lot of intrusion into the hearts and minds of people over communities, and sadly I’ll say over many so-called churches as well. Even good churches, faithful churches, even our church.

We too can feel the same pressures and we don’t even know where it’s coming from. Listen, don’t let anyone judge you. Don’t let anyone take you to task for bucking the national idolatries to live for freedom in Jesus Christ, because it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

So therefore, keep standing firm and do not subject yourself again to a yoke of slavery. Do not let the world intrude and set the agenda for your calendar and determine your times and seasons and weeks and months and years. Live not in the shadows. Live instead in the reality of Christ.

Listen when outward observance is prominent, when religious observance, and ritual, and rite is at the forefront, and especially when it seems to have scriptural support, like Israel’s calendar or when people appear, even in our own time, not following Jewish calendar observance, when they appear to understand great depths of theology, which others do not seem to understand. The practical attraction of false teaching that enters into the Church is in feeding human pride. That’s what’s going on. The practice is its own reward.

That’s what Jesus said of the hypocrites in his own day. “Truly, they’ve received their reward in full.” So beware, beloved, do not cave in to these judgements and pressures. Command in verse 16, can be as mild as, let no one take you to task. Don’t let anybody wag their finger in your face. Don’t let anybody give you that look. You know what I’m talking about. That look of disapproval or scorn or condemnation or how dare you.

Anything that exerts pressure, anything that makes you feel inferior, out of touch, don’t let anyone condemn you, either. When false teachers emphasize form over substance, you can be sure pride is at work. And pride always has a blinding effect, which features in our second point, which talks about the theological errors that Paul points out in verses 18 and 19.

Number two: False teachers walk in the darkness. False teachers walk in the darkness. He says, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize,” and the warning in verse 8, against those who want to take you captive, carry you off as spoil, that’s in verse 8.

But beyond the enslavement of captivity, beyond being taken as spoil in war, it means, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize.” This indicates a very significant personal loss. To defraud you of your prize is built from root word, brabeuos, which means umpire.

Interestingly, Paul uses a shorter version of this same verb in Colossians 3:15. It’s brabeuo, where he says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Brabeuo, let the peace of Christ act as the umpire in your hearts. Don’t let these false teachers do it. Which master do you want? Which umpire? Which one you want calling balls and strikes?

On the one hand, don’t let the false teachers act as your umpire. Don’t let them call balls and strikes on your life. Don’t let them arbitrate, set the rules, tell you you’re disqualified, that you can’t advance as a Christian, that you’ll somehow miss out on something that is in the inner circle. You won’t.

On the other hand, you’re to let the peace of Christ have that role as a gracious umpire in your heart according to peace, a peace that is informed by truth and by righteousness. Let the peace of Christ call the balls and strikes. Let him arbitrate, assure you of what you’re qualified for, direct your advancement in the practice of your religion.

Continuing on, let no one keep defrauding you of your prize. Don’t let anybody try to disqualify you, tell you’re not qualified, tell you you can’t have everything, that you don’t have fullness in Christ. Don’t let that happen. “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement” or the word humility, “and the worship of the angels, going into detail about visions he’s seen, being puffed up for nothing by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head.” You can stop there.

And we have come in verse 18 to a notoriously contested verse in this letter, and probably the verse with the greatest divergent of opinion, as to the exact interpretation of it. That said, I’ll just say it is less consequential to figure out exactly what Paul is addressing in these teachers and where it is all coming from, what gave rise to it. It’s less consequential to figure all that out, then to gain discernment, and take his caution, because you can do that, with what’s written here.

And he identifies four features of the false teachers, four features of the false teachers by which he intends to disqualify them from disqualifying you. He wants to put these false teachers in the right light. He wants us to see what’s at the heart of their attempts to disqualify us. And when we do, we will never again pay them any mind.

So you want to be set free? Take notes. That’s not a command to rule your consciences, by the way, I’m not trying to enslave you, yet again, to taking notes. If it helps you to take notes, write it down. Let me just state the four features, and then I’ll circle back to organize them, and then we’ll kind of walk through them.

Feature number one, it’s the source of their delight. Feature number two, the ground of their confidence. Feature number three, the source of their boldness. And feature number four, the tragedy of their condition. The first of these four features, their delight, their confidence, their boldness. These have to do with what they pursue, what they love, what’s in it for them, what they’re really after. The final feature is about what they’re forfeiting in the process, what they’re giving up to gain, which you and I, along with the Colossians, want nothing to do with.

So feature number one, the source of their delight, self-abasement and the worship of the angels, that is to say they’re taking pleasure in these things, which is why they’re devoted to them, because they delight in them, because they’re carnal people. First, they delight in self-abasement and, as I said, it’s less of a translation of the word tapeinophrosynē, it literally means humility.

So it gives kind of, by self-abasement, this translator has given their interpretation of this word, but it literally refers to humility and it’s not entirely clear how Paul wants us to understand this word. Is he talking about an attitude of the heart or is he talking about a description of what they practice practically? This the Colossians certainly knew.

They understood exactly what Paul was talking about. They could look at the word on the page and see the false teacher out the window. And they said, yep, that’s exactly it. They saw it in living color. Watch these false teachers walking around in flesh and blood. They knew exactly what Paul is identifying, we’re at a little bit more of a distance.

So in their practice of their religion, they either, they’re delighted in some kind of a faux humility, kind of like this sanctimonious way of talking and how they would kind of lilt through life, carrying themselves with manners of Eastern monks.

Or maybe he’s referring back to the practices of verse 16 and then scrolling ahead, maybe he’s talking about the humiliation and how they treat their body, severe treatment of the body, strict asceticism, as they mortify natural desires like eating food and drinking wine and the like, as they prepare for their worship.

In either case, pride is driving them, but it’s covered over and cloaked in humility. The delight is in what they themselves accomplish by their own works. They also delight, Paul says, in the worship of the angels, which is clearly not a feature of Judaism and it’s hard to see how this form of idolatry, clarity about who the angels are as created beings, how it sprang up from any other source, because these Gentiles believed in the elementary principles of the world, and they believed there was a God, that was connected to everything.

Earth, wind, water, all those, fire, all those things had gods attached to them and so somehow they’ve learned, oh, the angels are important. Maybe we have got it wrong all these years and it’s really the angels who are governing all these things.

These Gentiles evidently had moved from worshipping Phrygian, Greco, Roman deities to worshipping angels. So is this an improvement? Yeah. They’ve moved from fiction to reality. Angels, yeah, they’re creatures; at the very least, they’re real beings. The entire Pagan pantheon is a mere myth. It’s total fiction, but it’s not any better because they’ve just simply shifted the focus of their idolatry.

They’re just worshipping something else. Paul uses the word thrēskeia referring to rituals, liturgy, ceremonies that are practice among aberrant cults. That’s the word he just translated, worship of the angels, thrēskeia. It’s how they showed their honor to the deity or to the angels. It’s how they showed honor to an emperor. It’s how they showed honor to a dead relative, an ancestor, or in this case, to angels.

Whatever the case, the false teachers just love what they do. They delight in it. They delight in what they practice. They enjoy the homage that they offer, as it engages their intellect, feeds their pride, serves the purpose of portraying them to everybody else, as holy, connected to the divine, appeasing subordinate deities of the great divine, these angels.

Years ago I read the biography of Thomas Oden. Thomas Oden for decades was a liberal theologian, but he was converted in his 40s to Christianity, to truth, and he described that time of reading, studying, promoting false doctrines. He described it as, and he used this word, “intoxicating,” he said, “I loved the fantasies. I love the revolutionary illusions. I truly love them. I loved heresy.” That’s the kind of passion that Paul describes here about the false teachers, the intoxicatingly addictive thrill of intellectualism.

Intellectual transgression is the very worst damning of all transgressions, because they delight in and take pleasure in what’s going on in their own minds. Hard to free them from it, because the the walls that create a barrier between you and their intellect is their pride. The likes of you, you’re not going to get through. You don’t have the intellectual firepower, the heft. You haven’t read what they’ve read, you haven’t heard what they’ve heard, you haven’t thought about what they’ve thought about. And so there is no undoing them.

Some people like to dredge up old feudal biblically basis speculation, taking new delight in what has been studied, critiqued, rightly discarded. New delight in it that happened during this time. There’s a whole system of angelic hierarchy that was developed among the Jews and really probably spread over here to Anatolia, the Asia Minor continent, now modern-day Turkey.

The false teachers just love what they do. They delight in it. They delight in what they practice.” Travis Allen

But that whole area was saturated with this kind of stuff. It’s pretty captivating. We have our own versions of it in our own time as people get deep, deep into theology, whether it’s the early Church fathers or whether it’s medieval scholasticism or whether it’s the Reformation or whether it’s the Puritan time. You know what? You can take pride and intellectualism in anything. You can turn what was meant for good, as God did with these sacrifices and these annual feasts; he gave it to Israel for their good, and they turned into a source of pride. Anybody can do that.

Feature number two of the false teachers has to do with the ground of their confidence. The ground of their confidence, it says, “going into great detail about the visions he has seen.” Literally, that which he has seen refers to actual visions, the claim of some kind of a spiritual experience, some kind of a sensational of the numinous, some kind of experiential personal encounter, that much we can discern.

The real tricky part comes in the participle that follows, which comes from the verb, embateuō, basically meaning to step in, or to step on, or to set foot upon, or to stand on. What does he mean by that? It’s a bit harder to figure out the sense of it, to find out, that when you survey some of the translations that try to interpret this verse or try to render this verse.

The CSB translation says, “claiming access to a visionary realm,” it’s different. The ESV, LSB, which I’ve read, in the NIV, if I kind of combine all three of those, “going on in great detail about visions he has seen” or “take great delight in visions he has seen.” The NET, “he goes into great lengths about what he has supposedly seen,” which is casting doubt on the veracity of his visions. The NAS translation, “taking his stand on visions he has seen.” We can add complexity to these grammatical matters by going into the historical religious backdrop that may provide some context here.

The practices of Pagan worship that dominated the region for millennia, which may well be in the Colossian mind as they read this verb, embateuō, this verb in particular. It was West of Colossae, one hundred miles West of Colossae was Ephesus. And if you go up the coast a little bit, follow the coastline, you get to an ancient temple in a place called Klaros; ancient from the historical standpoint of the Colossians themselves, because this ancient temple had been there for 1000 years.

It’s a temple dedicated to Apollo, son of Zeus. Inscriptions are found at the temple site, three of them in particular, found today and they apply the same verb, embateuō, and it’s talking about those who enter into the oracular chamber. So its initiates, who get past the initiation and they are now able to enter into the Chamber of the Oracle, that is to receive a prophecy.

 This word describes that. The prophet Apollo, he gave sought after prophecy to the worshipper and it was said, to enter into that chamber and it uses this verb, which is really not a common verb. So some people think that used those inscriptions and formed the historical religious background here very well could because this worship of Apollo, very widespread especially in this Anatolia region.

Those who came to petition Apollo at Klaros, they prepared themselves by fasting, abstaining from food and drink. The petitioners came, they waited at the temple entrance while the prophet, in this case a male prophet, which is not always common to the Pagan religions. Often times it was a female, like the Oracle at Delphi. But here it’s a man prophet.

He enters alone into one of the subterranean rooms that are located directly beneath the temple, and he enters into pitch black darkness. They could have brought light in there, but the darkness was important. There’s a source that sets the scene for us, says these prophecies were performed during the full moon, illuminated by torchlight, accompanied by seven young girls and boys swinging Laurel leaves and singing hymns and all that was going on around the temple, in the environment of the temple.

But the prophet, he entered into this dark subterranean chamber, drank water from the sacred well, believed to be the tears of Monto, causing his eyes not to function, becoming intentionally blind in the drinking of the water from the sacred well. And it was in a state of darkness and blindness that he posed the petitioner’s question.

Whatever question was given to him, he posed the question to Apollo and then waited on the vision to come. One source wrote, “Once his physical eyes closed, his soul opened to divine revelation. So puns receiving the vision, he then turned and whispered the answer to the attending priest, and the attending priest turned to the attending scribe and had him record the prophecy that came by the vision. And then the scribe delivered the recorded prophecy back to the petitioner who had paid his money and done his sacrifice and all the rest.”

Now that describes the temple of Apollo at Klaros in western Anatolia, active for about 1000 years prior to Paul, but still active during Paul’s lifetime. So it’s still setting a pattern and an influence for Pagan worship throughout Anatolia. And that included the Phrygian Gentiles in the Lycus Valley and people further east too, all the way into the Galatian regions.

There were temples serving the Apollo cult in Laodicea and in Hierapolis, but there were temples to other deities as well. There were lots of secretive mystery religions, rituals for trade guilds, military veterans, all sorts of strange practices in this region; mix in Judaism, you have quite a stew brewing there, don’t you?

So whether this term, embateuō means, to step into, as into, investigate the visions he’s seen, or whether refers to the initiatory right of the petitioner who himself then goes in and partakes of receiving this prophecy, stepping into that oracular chamber, if you will. Or maybe this verb means that he is taking such a deep ownership of his vision and is claiming spiritual superiority over others. Due to this vaunted religious experience.

Whatever the case, all of this bolsters a heart of pride and puffs him up and pushes him further and further away from Christ. This issue of puffing up, we see this in a feature number three. Feature number three, the source of their boldness. He’s being puffed up for nothing by his fleshly mind.

Puffed up for nothing. And what’s the source? Nothing. There’s nothing there. There’s no validity to the vision. Even if he had some experience, it’s nothing. It amounts to nothing. It proves nothing. All it does is fill him with a sense of self-importance. All it does is fill his lungs with hot air, which he breathes out through false lips and uses it to intimidate others by his supposed superiority.

Sadly, that hot air doesn’t pass out of his body without affecting and addling his brain, his mind. Paul refers to his fleshly mind literally, by the mind of his flesh, means although he’s deeply spiritual, he’s in actuality totally carnal. He’s entirely thoroughly fleshly. He may be very sincere about his doctrine, but he is utterly and completely self-deceived and blinded by his own pride.

Very fascinating expression here, that his mind, his thinking, his reasoning is affected by his sensuality, his feelings of pride, his self-importance. He delights in what he thinks he knows. He thinks he gets it, that he understands all, and nobody else gets it. So the more lost he becomes, as a blind man who gropes in the darkness, or like that blind prophet of Apollo, he doesn’t realize that his enlightenment is blindness.

The light that he thinks he has darkens his soul. Paul says in Romans 8 verse 6, “The mind set on the flesh is death”. That’s what these are, prophets of death, prophets of darkness, walking in the darkness, living in their blindness and their pride.

So it’s no wonder that they find comfort in rituals, things that they can touch and feel, observances, things they can see, signs they can see, rituals they can practice. This is not true of Christians, for, “the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” Colossians 3:15 says, the peace of Christ is the only arbiter of your hearts.

Feature number four, to the false teachers, final one very quickly, the tragedy of their true condition. The tragedy of their true condition. It’s that they don’t hold fast to the head. They’re not holding fast to the head. Then this in verse 19, “not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and the ligaments, grows with the growth that is from God.”

 Remember how I said the first three features, what they delight in, what the confidence is in, where the boldness comes from; these are the things that they pursue. Those are the things that they love. That’s what they’re after. That’s what’s in it for them. But tragically, the more they pursue those things, the farther they move from Christ, the head, the vital connection to his body, which is the church.

We’re going to pick it up there next time. But let me leave you with this thought, dear Christian. Don’t let anyone intimidate you. Don’t let them judge you, defraud you, make you feel less than. Don’t let them coerce your conscience. Don’t be intimidated when they try to parade their spirituality before you or their knowledge. A lot of that going around or their theology, exposure to church history, the podcast that they listen to, the people that they’re tapped into, the circles that they’re a part of, the sub stack group that they’re listening to and getting their stuff from.

Don’t let anybody intimidate you, whatever their religious devotion is, whatever their practices are, whatever it is. If you’re in Christ and if his Spirit is in you, and if you’ve been circumcised by the circumcision of Christ, and if you’ve been baptized and buried with him in baptism and death and raised with him to new life.

If all your sins are forgiven, because God took that certificate, that handwriting of blame against you, and the empowered by the ordinances and the decrees of the law that condemned you as guilty. And he took that and he nailed it to the cross of wood, in Christ and he forgave you of all your transgressions. You are not on the outside of some supposed inner circle.

You couldn’t be more inside, because the third person of the Triune God lives in you. You couldn’t be more connected than you are right now. You couldn’t be any closer to Christ. He’s the substance, he’s the reality. He’s your future, your present. He is the one who dealt with your past and buried it.

 In him is eternal life and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, so don’t you go anywhere, beloved. Don’t wander away from this to join the false teachers. You watch out for them because they’re here. They’re out there. You resist any attempt at spiritual intimidation or pressure or looking down on you. You know the looks I’m talking about. You know the attitudes I’m talking about. You could feel it in their presence.

You just keep holding fast to the head from whom that entire body being supplied and held together by the joints and the ligaments, that is receiving its form and its shape and its connection and its vitality. It grows with the growth that comes from God. You just be patient, because God is doing a good work and you, he will complete it in the day of Christ.

You’re full in Christ. You have all belonging, you have deep communion, you have full forgiveness of sins, you enjoy life giving power that transforms you day by day, week by week, month by month, all through the calendar year into the image of God in Christ. You have it all, so believe and never let it go. Let’s pray.

Our Father, what a great salvation you have given to us in Christ, and what a great savior, what great accomplishments are found in him, his work, what beauty in his person, what beauty in his holiness. And we know that even though we are not yet what we shall be, we know that “when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we will finally and in one glance see Him as He is.” Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he’s pure.

So let the knowledge of this truth, this eschatological future that you’ve set for us, let this encourage us every single day, as we think about how secure we are, how well protected we are, how provided for we are, all in Christ. Let us fix our hope completely on him and let that drive us to a day-by-day obedience as the peace of Christ rules in our hearts. And father, we look to you and by your Spirit, by your word, and by the leadership in the lordship of Jesus Christ, who is such a a good and kind master.

We pray that you would protect these people, that you would not let anyone judge them and not let anyone intimidate, defraud, disqualify them, not one bit. But we pray that you would do it, not by some exceptional act, not by some extraordinary means, but by the ordinary means of grace as they continue to attend to your Word, to pray, to read your word, to memorize the Scripture, to meditate on it, and reflect on it.

That you would strengthen them day by day, keep them deeply rooted, stable, steadfast in Christ, and always abounding in the work of the Lord. Let them see your good work in their lives by transforming them, setting them free every single day from sins, helping them to mortify, but also to vivify the graces and the virtues of the Spirit. I pray that you encourage our hearts that way. Never let us go. Help us to keep our eyes open, to be discerning Christians who protect one another. For your glory we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.

Colossians 2:12-15

We return to Colossians 2 this morning, which has been such a rich study in the ground of Christian assurance and the ground of Christian assurance is outside of ourself. It’s in Christ and Christ alone, and that’s what Paul is rejoicing in, in Colossians chapter 2.

The occasion for Paul writing to the Colossians, as we have repeated throughout our study, is the threat of false teaching. False teachers were troubling the church. They intended to draw Christians away, captivate them with enticing doctrines, and then ensnare and capture as many of those Christians as they could.

And though Paul, he’s used strong language in Colossians 2:8 to describe vividly the grave threat that is facing the church and these Christians in the Colossian church, they are in danger of being carried off as captives, like spoils of war. That’s the language he uses in Colossians 2:8. And though he uses that language, you need to understand, obviously, this is not a kinetic operation. This is not physical, literal warfare in that sense. Also, they don’t take these captives against their wills.

That’s an interesting feature of the warfare that we’re involved in, a spiritual warfare. There are much clever tactics, more subtle methods that are used to intimidate Christians and to stir up fears, or on the other hand, to appeal to pride or vanity or sensuality, to entice and pull them away.

So it’s by means of intimidation that this warfare happens, that this attack comes to us, or by means of enticement, that weak, unstable church members are drawn away from their true strength and their source of stability, which is found in Christ and Christ alone.

Whether it’s by fear that they’re made to think that what they have is not powerful enough, or whether it’s by their pride or their vanity or their sensuality, maybe they’ve come to think that what they’ve been taught in Christ is not sophisticated enough. Either way, the result is the same.

Professing believers wander away, and they are willful in their wandering. They are willing in their wandering, and in their wandering, they land in the open arms of these spiritual miscreants, these false teachers.

They’ve been intimidated, yes. They’ve been enticed, certainly, but they are, in their escape from Christ and satisfaction in Christ, they flee from what they think is trouble into a greater doom, and they are doomed to be used as tools, trophies of the triumph of false teachers, the triumph of their false doctrines, and really just set on a shelf.

So Paul warns them, here, in Colossians 2, Don’t do it. Don’t be fooled. Keep your eyes open. Fix your heart on Christ, and be discerning about the people who are talking to you. Because as we’ve said before, the false doctrine does not come as an abstraction. False doctrine comes through people who talk: relatives, friends, coworkers, neighbors. It’s by influence of relationship that these false doctrines come. Paul says, you have everything there is to have. You have it all in Christ. Don’t be moved away.

Take a look at the text, and we’re going to start reading in verse 6, and we’ll read through the end of that section in verse 15. “Therefore, as you’ve received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and being built up in Him, and having been established in your faith- just as you were instructed- and abounding with thanksgiving.

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily, and in Him you have been filled, who is the head over all rule and authority; in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

“And you being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him, having graciously forgiven us all our transgressions. Having cancelled out the certificate of death consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us, He’s also taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them in Him.”

I want to draw your attention, as we’ve just read that, draw your attention to two aspects of the warning that Paul gives, first, by going back to verse 8. And his concern is to guard the Colossians against empty deception packaged in philosophical speculation, and yet it is presented to them as reasonable.

Look back at verse 4. He says, “It comes in the form of a persuasive argument.” So it’s a person that you know, a person with whom you are acquainted, you could say a person you trust, a person you’re friends with, and they try to persuade you. They make reasonable sounding arguments. But it really, if it’s departing from Christ, if it’s adding to Christ, if it’s somehow saying Christ is insufficient, it’s a speculative philosophy and an empty deception.

Now, what is it that makes speculative philosophy in any age, what makes it sound so persuasive? What makes it influential? What is, in the end, so empty and futile, pointless, groundless, arbitrary? Why does it come off to be so credible? How is it that this kind of thing moves us?

Well, quite simply, it’s because it comes to us packaged in familiar forms, uses the language of the culture that we know so well, in which we were born, raised, nurtured, enculturated. In other words, it just, it just makes intuitive sense to us. It just feels right.

What was passed on to the Colossians was “according to the tradition of men,” familiar teaching, things, language, and forms and, and themes that they knew that weren’t surprising. They were “according to the elementary principles of the world,” and these were the things in their culture that had narrative power, that held sway over the moral and the social imagination of the culture.

And Christians also, having grown up in the culture, they needed to learn to think intentionally and critically about their assumptions. They needed to stop and pause almost in every conversation and think about the language that’s being used, think about definitions of terms, think about distinctions that are either made or not made, and considered in contrast to Christ.

They had inherited intellectual assumptions. They had an operating paradigm of life. They had things that just made sense to them spiritually, morally, socially, intuitions about what seems right and what feels right. And beloved, I just want to say we’re not any different than that. We, too, have been enculturated. We, too, have things for us that just feel right, seem right.

What won the day in the whole argument over gay marriage? The homosexual activists say this openly now. They say it had nothing to do with making philosophical arguments, nothing to do with going to Christians and helping them to understand that they’ve got the Bible wrong. They tried that. What really won the day? Sitcoms: turning old Christianity and Christian thinking and old traditions, making them look foolish, stupid, getting people to laugh at them.

What else won the day? Relationships. As homosexual young people appealed to their parents and their grandparents and their great-grandparents and said, look, we just want love like you do, like you and grandpa have. And they would appeal to the nurturing heart of a woman and try to soften the target and say, look, I just want to be happy like you are.

It came through feeling, sentiment, and now nobody talks about arguments for gay marriage anymore. In fact, most homosexuals will tell you they don’t even care about marriage. They don’t care about the institution. They don’t want that for themselves. They don’t want the same things. They want legal protections. They want tax benefits, sure. But do they want covenants before God to keep them faithful? This is how it comes across, by intuition, by what feels right, seems right, which is just intuitively a sense we have.

The second aspect of Paul’s warning comes at the start of this dense summary overview of soteriology in verse 10, and then you see it again at the end in verse 15. Notice the repetition, there, of two terms. In verse 10, Paul assures them, “In Him you have been filled, who is the head over all rule and authority.”

And then in verse 15, Paul assures them “God in Christ has disarmed,” again, there’s the terms, “the rulers and the authorities, making a public display of them, having triumphed over them in Him.”

So taking the first point, joining it to this second observation, what made intuitive sense to everyone in this time and to the Colossian believers as well? What appealed to their native thinking and their native feeling? Certain beliefs about all rule and authority, certain assumptions about particular rulers and authorities.

As we talked about a couple weeks ago, they had inherited a false cosmology. And the elementary stuff of the physical world, earth, water, fire, air, each physical element had its spiritual counterpart.

So there were deities behind the physical, material elements that had to be acknowledged and worshipped and appeased. They were, as we said, polytheists. The whole Gentile world was like that.

Isn’t it interesting that here in the West it’s no longer like that? It’s a testimony, really, to the cultural force of Christianity and 2,000 years of narrative power, particularly in the West, that really obliterated all rule and authority, forcing all these so-called gods to bow the knee to Christ. So it’s kind of laughable if anybody says they believe in many gods.

So we read this text today, don’t we, as thoroughgoing moderns? We’re enculturated into a different ideology: modernity. We enjoy the benefits of progress. There’s an endless, ever-flowing stream of benefits coming to us.

There’s bounty in technological development that lightens our loads and heals our diseases and entertains us and takes us where we want to go, brings us stuff we want to eat and consume and drink at the click of a button. It holds forth the promise, really, of everlasting life.

Have we now been delivered from intimidation and fear and anxiety? Is that us, an unanxious people? Are we now immune from enticing allurement of false teaching? Look, our errors are not their errors. Polytheism has been supplanted by, first, monotheism and then Christian theism, now by atheism. And really what’s taken shape, and if you’re not an atheist, is some kind of benign form of theism, like a deism. Christian Smith and his researchers called it, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

But this benign theism has to do with a God we can control, bowing down to him when we feel like it. This antiquated pre-modern cosmology now looks quite foolish in the age of scientific discovery and advancement.

And yet are we any better off? Are we superior to the Colossians and their polytheistic ways? According to George H. C. McGregor, he says, “We are still conscious that apart from the victory of Christ, man is a helpless victim in a hostile cosmos. We still ask how a man is to triumph over an evil heredity or how he can be free and victorious in a world of rigid law and scientific necessity. We still suffer from astronomical intimidation, terror at the insignificance of man and the vastness of the material universe encompassing him.

“Mankind, whether ancient or contemporary; whether pre-modern or modern; whether polytheist, atheist, agnostic or highly religious; whether living in a primitive hut on some remote island or in some undiscovered cave, or in a multi-million-dollar high rise in New York City or a $25 million penthouse in Dubai, no matter where he lives in space, no matter when he lives on the timeline of history, man is plagued with the same metaphysical questions.

“Who am I? What am I? How did I get here? Where’s history headed? What’s going to happen when I die? What’s wrong with the world, and what’s wrong with me? How do I remedy what’s wrong? How do I live a life to the fullest? How do I live free of malady and corruption and guilt and shame?”

As the western world has shifted from polytheism to monotheism and even Christian theism, in the enlightenment hubris of the West, they’ve dared to try to kill God and and then deify and worship the self; and in so doing, they’ve really committed cultural suicide.

So no matter where man lives in space and time, he’s still left with only two options. Just two, it’s the religion of human achievement, or it is the religion of divine accomplishment. The first, the religion of human achievement, promotes human pride, and so it’s even more deeply enslaving. There is no way of getting out of that trap.

The second, the religion of divine accomplishment, is the only true religion, the revealed religion from God and based in truth, grounded in his righteousness, and therefore it is the only saving religion.

It’s the only religion that deals with man at his depth and deals with his deepest need, which is sin and guilt before God and the shame that comes from that. Only God can set man free, answer every question, physical and metaphysical, moral and ethical.

Only God can explain to man how he is created, what he is, what makes him go, how he should live, how he should live in freedom and dignity, how we should bear the image of God. So Paul preaches the latter, not the former. He warns against the former; and now that the Colossians are Christians, now that they understand the religion of divine accomplishment, he seeks to more securely, more deeply fasten them into the truth.

And all of us, too, all of us need this strengthening, this deepening of our roots, the securing, holding fast of our anchor in the true religion of divine accomplishment because it’s only what God has done in and through Christ. Only that will last, only that will save, only that will set free. It’s only what he’s done that fills us, that fulfills us, and that gives us new life in Christ.

So no matter what makes intuitive sense to any culture at any given time in any given place, it’s only by walking in Christ, holding fast to him, that will always be relevant.

We studied Colossians 2:11 last time, which is about spiritual regeneration, about having a brand-new heart in Christ. And as we then look ahead to verses 12-15 this week on conversion and salvation, we see the start of our brand-new life in Christ comes by spiritual union with Christ. That’s the key concept that runs through verses 12-15, union with Christ, deep spiritual union with Christ.

Again, God is the author of this new life. Just as he is the author of our spiritual circumcision, our regeneration, he’s the author of our new life. He’s the one who has given this new life to us, and the one who has lived this new life is Christ. It’s new to us. It’s very familiar to him.

The ritual of water baptism we practice as Christians, …. is a fitting and appropriate sign of what happened spiritually to us.” Travis Allen

The agent of this new life and the reason for our participation in this new life is the Holy Spirit of God. He’s the one who effects this union, causes it, makes it happen.

Let me give you three points for our exposition today. I’m going to start with this, and they all have to do with our fullness in Christ. So here’s the first point, number one, the fullness of our union with Christ. The fullness of our union with Christ.

We’re going to get a running start to this point, going back to verse 10. “In Him you have been filled, who is the head over all rule and authority.” That’s kind of the beginning bookend, and we come to the end of that bookend at the end of verse 15, again repeating “rulers and authorities.”

But “He is the head of all rule and authority. And in Whom you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”

Paul fired the first shot at the dominant cultural narrative of polytheism back in Colossians 1:16, when he said, “In him all things were created,” and then he said, all things meaning, “whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.”

So by virtue of his being their creator, Christ is therefore head over all rule and authority, including the angelic forces that some wear enticing them to worship in verse 18. Christ is head of them all.

No one, though, whether it’s the Colossians and their polytheistic culture, or whether it’s us in our atheistic, agnostic scientism, science falsely so-called, but no one will turn away from our cultural intuitive thinking apart from a deep spiritual work taking place, one that is accomplished not by us, but by God and God alone.

And so Paul is pleased to tell the Colossians and to tell us it’s God who filled us in Christ, verse 10. It is God who caused us to be spiritually circumcised, verse 11, who regenerated us by the Spirit, who grants us a new heart in Christ.

And so in verse 12 also, it is God who united us to Christ. It’s God who buried us with him in baptism, and it’s God who raised us up with Christ. It comes by his grace alone and through faith alone.

Now there are some who look at this passage, Roman Catholics committing a very serious error, here. They distort and confuse a beautiful passage like this and others like it, which is about the ground of Christian assurance in God’s initiative and God’s work and God’s power through the work of Christ alone.

And they distort it into a sacramental view of baptism. What I mean by that is that Roman Catholicism says the act of baptism, the ritual of water baptism, regenerates the one who’s baptized. It’s by water baptism that regeneration takes place.

In baptism, God removes original sin, that’s the cleansing part, they say, and he infuses grace, that’s the life-giving part, they say, which begins a process in the Roman Catholic system to make this individual righteous by means of his own works, joined with Christ’s works, by his practicing of the sacraments, all joined to the work of Christ and work of the saints. And all combined together, God will justify him in the end, in the end, which can come after thousands and thousands of years, burning off the sin in purgatory.

That’s a strong, strong version of sacramentalism. Lutherans teach a weaker version of this sacramental view. They still say baptism regenerates, but rather than saying God removes original sin and infuses grace, they say it’s by word and sacrament that God creates faith in the individual by which he justifies the individual, and he does so in the waters of baptism, but not apart from the waters of baptism.

And so for Catholics and for Lutherans, faith is in the equation, yes, but both believe water baptism is the means by which regeneration happens. They use a Latin phrase, ex opere operato, “by the work worked,” and by that phrase they turn baptism into the channel that conveys God’s regenerating grace.

Now there’s also the Reformed view, the Reformed view for Presbyterians and for Baptists that is distinctively different, distinguished from that sacramental view. Neither the Presbyterians or the Baptists holds to a sacramental view of baptism, that regenerating grace comes ex opere operato, “by the work worked” regeneration happens.

We don’t say that. Presbyterians don’t say that. Instead, the Reformed view, which I believe is the biblical view, says that water baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality. That’s what you’ve all come to believe. That’s why you’re here, because you believe that baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality.

That is to say that after regeneration, which God does by his Spirit invisibly, powerfully, working within you, taking his initiative after your conversion, where he joins you to Christ and you are dead in Christ and then raised to new life in Christ. We say that water baptism, then, is such a fitting sign to portray that, to signify this spiritual union that we have in Christ.

Notice that Paul speaks, verse 11, of “a circumcision made,” what does he say, “without hands,” right? That is to say, it’s a spiritual reality. You see the same language again in verse 12, “Having been buried with him and being raised up with him.” Spiritual realities once again. Not physical realities, not physical realities in the past. The baptism he speaks about is a metaphor. It points to the Spirit’s inward work, uniting us spiritually to Christ.

This is the baptism that John the Baptist spoke of when he was going around baptizing and preparing the way for the Lord. Luke 3:16, he says, “I baptize you with water, but one comes mightier than I, who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

So is that “baptism with the Holy Spirit” that he speaks of a water baptism, physical, literal? Is that what he’s talking about? If so, what about the baptism by fire? Is that literal, too? If anyone wants to try it, I’d recommend the fire baptism comes first, followed immediately by the water baptism.

Jesus told his Apostles to expect the baptism of the Spirit in Acts 1:5, contrasting John’s baptism by water with his baptism, not by water, but by the Spirit. John baptized with water. He told them that “you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

That happened, you remember, not only to the Apostles, but to the crowd listening as they received the Word through Peter’s preaching; and then after that they were baptized with water as a sign.

When the Gentiles responded to Peter’s preaching, they were subsequently baptized by the Spirit in Acts 11:16. Peter’s telling the Jews about it, and he said to them, “I remember the word of the Lord, how he used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’”

Listen, the ritual of water baptism we practice as Christians, it’s precious to us. It is a fitting and appropriate sign of what happened spiritually to us. It’s as Greg Beale says, “It’s merely a symbolic act, signifying, not actually conveying the reality of dying and rising with Christ in Spirit baptism.”

It’s important. “It’s merely a symbolic act, signifying, not actually conveying.” That language is to say we are not spiritually regenerated in the physical waters of baptism. That’s, at best, the Lutheran view. At worst, it’s the Catholic view. It’s the sacramental view. The baptism that Jesus promised is a spiritual one. It’s a picture of union with Christ in his death and in his resurrection.

When we reflect on this reality, when we consider what actually has happened to us in spiritual baptism, being immersed in Christ, that’s what the word baptizmos means, here, is to be dipped down into or to be washed thoroughly or totally immersed in Christ. We find out how thorough the work of God is, how profound our union with Christ is.

The two most profoundly significant events in the life of Christ, of which he himself was cognizant, I realize that it was profoundly significant that he be incarnate, and yet it is incarnation, he was a zygote, right? He was joined to Mary by the Holy Spirit. It was miraculous. That happened to him; he wasn’t cognizant of it though he grew into his cognizance of his understanding of who he was.

But the two events profoundly significant in his life of which he was cognizant were his death and his resurrection. In dying, his time of humiliation came to an end. In his death, his time of humiliation was over; death, the greatest indignity, the greatest humiliation.

And in that time of humiliation, ended by death, he was never to be returned to that state of humiliation, because in rising from the dead, that’s when his glorification commenced, never to be rescinded.

As Paul said in Romans 6:10, “The death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.” It’s a new life, a glorified life. And then in verse 11, Paul connects the historic death and resurrection of Christ to our own union with Christ. And it’s through this spirit baptism, “Even so, consider yourselves, reckon yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Listen, our union with Christ

in Spirit-baptism is the definitive and permanent end of our old self, buried with him in baptism. It’s also the definitive, permanent start of a brand-new life. “In baptism you were also raised up with Him.”

Notice at the end of verse 12, this union was put into effect by God, put into effect at the first breath of our regenerate nature as we were born again by the Spirit, verse 11. And then God affected a spiritual union with Christ, raising us up with him through, as it says there in verse 12, “through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead.”

So he speaks of faith in the working of God and our union with Christ, our being raised up with him; that’s a spiritual reality that happens now. But look what it’s based on. Our faith in the working of God, the powerful working of God, the energy, the almighty power of God, who raised him from the dead.

It’s grounded in an objective, historical, physical reality, recorded in Scripture for us, witness to, testified to, and it’s changed the world. We put our faith in God, who actually did something, raised him from the dead.

Now you may say, as I think all of us have wondered, living today, how is it that we are joined to his death and resurrection, which physically, literally, historically happened 2,000 years ago? How does that happen?

Listen, we become partakers of his work, his atoning death for our sins, his resurrection life for our justification; God makes all of this happen by his grace through our faith, not through the waters of baptism, but through believing, through faith.

I like how Greg Beale summarizes this. He says, “Our union with him by faith in our own time is an outworking of our identification with his redemptive work in his historical time.” We’re joined, united to him by faith, which joins our time. Wherever we are in the timeline of human history, wherever we are on the face of the globe, we’re joined, transported back by faith and united to him.

God recognizes us that way. God sees us that way. And if God counts that as reality, it’s good enough for me. Do I understand how that happens intellectually? Do I comprehend the fullness of it? I do not. But that’s how God works, right? That’s exactly how God works all through Scripture, from cover to cover. He fulfills promises by his grace.

But in his dealings with us, he involves us, involves us so that his promises of grace are fulfilled by means of and through the conduit of our believing in him, not doing something, as the sacramental view of baptism teaches, not doing something as Abraham and Sarah tried to do and produced through Hagar, Ishmael, leading to a very real conflict that remains with us to this day in the Middle East. It will not cease until Christ returns again.

This comes by means of and through the conduit of our believing in him and not doing something, but by means of our trusting in his Word, exercising faith, resting in his promises, knowing that he’ll do it in his way, his time.

Now, why is this so important? Because only those who are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, only those whom God has circumcised in Christ with a circumcision made without hands, only they have been enabled to believe. Having a new heart, they enter into a new life in Christ. New heart, new life.

So listen, take comfort in this, beloved. If you believe in the mighty working of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, through faith God has joined you to Christ by the agency of his Spirit. You have now become one with him, one with him in his death, burial and resurrection. You are now made a partaker of God’s power in resurrection life.

And it’s a life that is never to be relinquished, never rescinded, never withdrawn from you. It’s permanent. It doesn’t change or diminish. It changes only in the sense that as we realize what is available, we grow stronger in that life. That life comes to greater fruition, fullness in us, but it is all there, never to be taken away.

And faith is the means by which you receive this new life in Christ. Faith is the means by which God united you to him. And therefore faith is the means by which you continue to share in the new life in Christ. It’s in Christ, it’s with Christ that you have and you continue to have, and you will continue to share his life forever through eternity.

So union with Christ is everything. It’s everything. It’s a foundational reality that holds us and secures us forever, not because we’re wrestling our way to it, because we rest in faith, because he has done it all.

So in union with Christ, as we think back to what’s facing the Colossians and what faces us, we’re inoculated against any and all attempts to intimidate us over what we supposedly lack. Why? Why are we inoculated, because if we just go back to the source material, we realize we lack nothing. We’re good. We are full, filled to the brim and overflowing. There’s nothing they can add to that. In union with Christ, as we discover all that God has done for us, what could entice us?

I mean, he’s captivated our hearts. He holds us fast by his love, and that love and that affection for him as we come to appreciate all that he’s done, it repels any and all attempts to entice us with any better offer. It’s as if there were such a thing, to seek some better gospel, to search out some new philosophy, some new and better way. There is no such thing.

As we move into a second point, we find another aspect of fullness in Christ, in verses 13 and 14, number two, the fullness of our forgiveness in Christ, the fullness of our forgiveness in Christ.

Look at those verses, verse 13 to 14, “When you were dead in your transgressions, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him having forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us. He’s taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” Oh, it’s good news. I mean, it’s only good news if you’ve sinned. I have. It’s really good news to me.

Paul answers several questions in verses 13-14, but the key word at the heart of his answers, it’s tucked between those two verses, end of verse 13, it’s the verb, having forgiven, having forgiven. Typical word for forgiveness in the New Testament is the verb aphiemi, which means, to release or let go or pardon. And that’s used for forgiveness exclusively in the Gospels. It’s common throughout most of the New Testament epistles, as well.

But Paul prefers a different term, another term, charizomai. Charizomai, it’s a, it’s a word that is formed from the word charis, which means grace. So charizomai is a word for forgiveness that highlights the reason for our forgiveness, which is charis, the grace of God. So since charizomai means to forgive freely or to forgive graciously, you just write the word, grace to the side of verses 13 and 14, because every word there, every line there, every phrase, every clause is grounded in the mercy and in the compassion, in the saving grace of God.

And so we see several things, here, just to list these out. Running through the passage, we see the depth of God’s grace because it was when we were dead and uncircumcised, God forgave us. We couldn’t have been farther from him, and yet his grace is deeper still.

The strength of God’s grace. He made you alive by the exercise of this infinite, almighty power. Notice the breadth of God’s grace, “having forgiven us all our transgression,” not just some, not even just most, but all of them.

Notice the impartiality of God’s grace. Notice that, how Paul goes from the second-person plural, you, he goes to the first-person plural, when he talks about forgiveness, us. He speaks of forgiving us. It’s not only you Gentiles who need God’s forgiving grace; it’s us, too. Us Jews, we need it too. I, Paul, I need his grace.

Notice the justice of God’s grace, “having cancelled out the certificate of debt,” the decrees of law. God dealt with the law. He didn’t bypass it. He didn’t skirt around it. He didn’t go under it, over it. He went through the law. He’s just.

And then finally, the finality of God’s grace, taking it out of the way, nailing it to the cross, never to be brought up again. What do you do with dead bodies at the cross, things you nail to the cross? You bury them and forget them. They’re gone. It’s final.

In this section, Paul is preparing to address all the questions that trouble the human heart, even believing hearts. False Christians, false teachers exploit the questions of the heart, intimidate Christians by fouling up good air with questions that choke us in doubt. They muddy clear waters, hoping to keep us from drinking deeply of the truth. They suggest things like, You? Forgiven? You’re too dirty to be cleansed completely. More is needed to atone for your sins.

Or, Yeah, Christ’s atonement took care of past sins, did away with original sin. But listen, what about today’s sins? Eh? What about tomorrow’s sins? I’ve watched your life. You need to do penance, you need to keep the sacraments, you need to keep on doing your best. Do your best and God will make up the rest with his kindness. He’ll add the works of the saints, he’ll add the works of Christ. He’ll add the treasury of merit. He’ll bring you over. But you’ve just got to keep trying harder. Don’t give up. We’re doing it, too.

Others raise doubts by questioning the nature of God’s work, questioning the nature of the atonement itself, questioning the injustice in Jesus. The Righteous One having to bear the sins of the unrighteous? How’s that fair? they say. Sounds like, some have termed it “cosmic child abuse” for the Father to put his own Son up on the cross and nail him there even though he’s righteous and did nothing to offend.

All that intimidation, all find their answers in Christ as we trust in what God has actually accomplished for us in him. We started in faith. We continue in faith. We reason from faith. When faith and believing is our attitude, when believing is the disposition that frames our thinking and our reasoning, we can ask about anything. It’s all open to us. We don’t need to be intimidated by anything, enticed by anything. We find answers to all questions in Christ.

Lots of questions, but let me boil it down to two basic ones. And the first question is this: How can we be sure of God’s favor? How can we be sure of God’s favor? That is to say, in light of how bad we are, in light of how dirty our lives are, how foul our sins are, in the sight of a thrice-holy God who is holy, holy, holy, how could we be sure of his favor?

Paul answers, because of the depth of God’s grace, verse 13, “When you were dead in your transgressions, in the uncircumcision of your flesh.” It was when you were at your most repulsive and at your lowest, at your very worst, that’s when “He made you alive together with Him,” not later, not after you cleaned up your act a little bit.

“Dead in your transgressions,” that speaks of actual sins, definite trespasses, violations of law. “Dead in the uncircumcision of your flesh,” that refers first, here, to Gentile status, as a physical uncircumcision that signifies their alienation from God.

Paul said this in Ephesians 2:11-12, Remember that formerly you, Gentiles in the flesh, uncircumcision, you were called uncircumcision by the Jews. You were at that time without Christ. You were alienated from the citizenship of Israel. You were strangers to the covenants of promise. You had no hope. You had no God in the world. In all your polytheism, you were godless.

They were Christless, without a mediator to plead for them before God. They’re vagrant, without any home or country or kingdom. They’re friendless, no covenant of grace that they knew of, no peace, no love, no hope, hopeless, godless, without revealed truth, without any coherent theology, no meaningful cosmology, no dignified anthropologies, no hope in eschatology but by “the uncircumcision of your flesh.”

Paul draws attention not just to their Gentile status, but to the status of anyone, Jew or Gentile, that’s in that spiritual condition, being cut off from God. “Paul draws attention,” as Doug Moo puts it, “to the sinful impulse that dominates the body of the non-Christian.”

It’s a good way of putting it, “a sinful impulse that dominates the body of the non-Christian.” That was me before Christ. And I know full well what that sinful impulse, a dominating impulse in the mind, in the heart, in the lust and the affections and the desires, I know exactly what that’s like. And so do you. It’s the sin nature, it’s the carnal disposition that had yet to be stripped away, yet to be cast off, cast away.

So Paul says to the Colossians, look, you were dead on all accounts because of actual and definite sins, transgressions against God’s law, trespasses, crossing the line, but also because of a sinful, carnal nature that keeps you sinning, causes you to continue in sin, because of an enmity toward God that you have. And so because of your sins, death dominated.

They waded in death. They were submerged in death, drowning in death, saturated by death. Because of death, they stank to high heaven with that putrid, rancid stench. And that is precisely when God came to the rescue, when he reached his holy, pure hand down into the defiled pollution and rancid, putrid stench of death, and plucked us out of it, and by his touch, purified. He made you alive together with him, alive together with Christ.

And so, devil, you may charge me with being too dirty. Unbeliever, false religionist, you may charge me with being too filthy, too foul. I’d answer, you’re right. I am such, but God is gracious, God is gracious.

Paul says, “He’s forgiven us all our transgressions,” all that made us dirty and filthy and foul. He’s erased death’s stench, overpowering everything that offends with the sweetness of the aroma of life in Christ. Not just past sins either, but present sins, too, because all our sins were future to Christ when he died upon that cross. So you can throw in your present sins and your future sins as well. When he died on the cross, his death paid the penalty, as Paul says right here, “for all our trespasses.” All of them.

Now this brings us to another question, something else that troubles the mind. And this question really comes across more as a charge because when you boil it down to its essence, that’s exactly what it is, is a charge and accusation against God.

But here’s the question: How can God be just in forgiving us? Sounds like a reasonable question to ask, and in the right spirit it is a reasonable question. It’s a good little puzzle to figure out that Scripture does explain to us, but in many contexts that’s more like a charge against God, to say that that graciousness and that forgiveness apart from any human works, they want to assign blame to him and say he’s being unjust.

So the charge is: Does grace circumvent law? Does grace spurn lawful rules of crime and punishment by which the world operates, which God himself revealed in the law? These Christians, Paul’s gospel, teaches the flouting of justice, they say. They teach, this gospel that Paul brings, teaches that God bypasses justice and he grants clemency to wicked sinners. How can that be?

Notice that there is, according to verse 14, “a certificate of debt.” You know what that means? That means God does take note of human guilt. He does keep a record of offenses against his righteous law. He doesn’t overlook like some benign grandfather or grandmother that says, Oh, that’s okay, dear.

No, he keeps a record. He records it. The term actually refers literally to a handwritten document, and so it’s portraying God as personally recording debts owed to him, and he records it by hand. F. F. Bruce says, “There is a mountain of bankruptcy that we have no hope of discharging. And by the way, we have no hope that our divine creditor will ever forget it.”

So God knows the concept of justice. In fact, he’s the one who revealed the concept of justice, a justice, a standard grounded in his righteous character when he gave men his law. He inscribed the law on every human heart, Romans 2:14 says.

The strength of God’s grace. He made you alive by the exercise of this infinite, almighty power.” Travis Allen

He wrote the law on stone tablets, as Exodus reveals. He gave it to Israel through Moses at Sinai, written by his hand. He gave every human being a conscience. Romans 2:15 says he holds each individual human being accountable, gives him “a conscience that either accuses or excuses him, according to that law written in the heart,” according to that law written on tablets of stone.

So this is the certificate of debt consisting of the decrees of the written law, certificate of debt marking down every violation of that law. Certificate of debts consisting of decrees, decrees referring to the commandments, ordinances, precepts, statutes given to us, given to us originally for life.

As Paul says in Romans 7:10, “But because of our sins, that law which was meant to give life to us has resulted in death.” So Paul says that God’s good decrees have turned against us, as the text says. They’ve become hostile to us not because they in and of themselves are hostile enemies against us. No, they’re for us. It’s our sin. Let’s turn the law against us.

Then God did something about it, cancelled out the certificate of debt. He took that certificate out of the way. That verb, there, means to wipe out, blot out, totally erase, and that comes to the heart of the challenge that is in this objection or in this question that’s asked from those who object to this salvation by divine grace alone.

The strength of the objection is found in the principle of divine justice itself, the one that God himself revealed in the law and in the decrees. It says, summarized in Proverbs 17:15, points out this seeming contradiction. Proverbs 17:15 says, “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to Yahweh.”

Okay, so there it is in black and white, written by God’s own hand. How can God justify those whom he himself counts as wicked? How can he do that? How could he do that without abominating himself? How can he erase this certificate of debt, which he himself has written by hand? How can God be just and show mercy to the one who deserves to be condemned?

Listen, this is the heart of the gospel, isn’t it, that God is free to show divine mercy because he satisfied for himself, by himself, the demands of divine justice. And he did so in a surprising, unexpected way, revealed in that expression, there, that “God took this handwritten certificate of debt out of the way, removing it from His sight forever.” How? “Having nailed it to the cross.”

Emphatic word picture, isn’t it? Nailed his own certificate of debt, charges against us, all the violations of the law, all the record of our guilt, thought, word, and deed, sins of omission and commission. For some of you, that may be a short list; I know my own life, that’s long.

“Nailed it to the cross.” This word picture points to the historic penal substitutionary atoning work of Christ, doesn’t it, what he accomplished for us on the cross, doesn’t it? J. B. Lightfoot says, “Not only was the writing erased, but the document itself was torn up, cast aside, and the law of ordinances nailed to the cross, rent with Christ’s body, destroyed with his death.”

That means the record of our sins is gone forever. Why? Because, because they’ve been set aside, our sins, our offenses? No. Because they’ve been punished fully, completely in the cross of Christ. The record of our sins is now gone, and gone forever.

And Paul is as vivid as he is emphatic, here, he repeats the point, he stacks up the metaphors, “having graciously forgiven,” “having cancelled,” “he’s taken it out of the way,” “having nailed it to the cross.” He wants us to get the point.

Why does he want us to get the point? Why does he keep repeating? Because we are so prone to forget. We need the images. We need the pictures. This is the fullness of our forgiveness in Christ. God has provided a deep and abiding and unshakable assurance of our forgiveness, because it’s grounded not in anything arbitrary. It’s not some make-believe legend or myth.

Forgiveness is historic reality. It shows God to be just, punishing all our sins in the crucifixion of his son, nailing him to a cross of wood. And it also shows him to be merciful, justifying him who has faith in Christ. So his grace is deep, strong, broad, impartial, just, final. And now we come to a

final verse in this section in verse 15, a final point, and it’s a short point for today. I’ll expand on it later because this point in verse 15 does receive a fuller and more fitting emphasis as Paul unpacks the implications of that reality in the next section.

But our third point is this, number three, the fullness of our triumph in Christ. The fullness of our triumph in Christ. Paul doesn’t come to this section that we’ve just been through, he doesn’t come to this section to provide a summary of soteriology for academic purposes. He doesn’t come to this with just an abstraction.

He’s making a practical point. His theology in the soteriology, the doctrine of our salvation, is driving at something, here. He’s leading his readers to a necessary conclusion, driving them to a verdict and the necessary implications of the doctrine of regeneration and conversion and salvation by union with Christ.

He wants them and he wants us, beloved, to settle our hearts, stir our affections, steel our spines. And once that happens, he wants us to turn around, do an about-face and go to war, go to combat with these false teachers and demolish every high and pretentious thing that elevates itself against the doctrine of God and his Christ.

Got to get your combat boots on. You got to get kitted up. You got to load your weapon and point it at these enemies because they’re destroying souls. They’re taking people captive. They could do it from our midst.

So why should the Colossian believers listen to any of their persuasive arguments when God has so finalized his victory? Why should they be intimidated at all when their Savior, the Christ, as verse 15 says, he’s “disarmed the rulers and authorities”?

“The rulers and authorities,” here refers to the hostile, malicious forces, angelic beings, fallen angels. So we call them demons. It’s the devil and his angels that are in view, here. The devil and his angels, these demons were served by the Phrygian Gentiles of the Lycus Valley for centuries, and all the deities of the pantheon to which they paid homage, to which they observed and offered rites to and went to temples for.

And Paul assures the Colossians that God has disarmed all of that. And he started with the chief demon, the arch-demon, the devil himself at the cross, snatched out of his hands his chief weapon of mass destruction, which is death, by which he intimidated and terrified and enslaved all of humanity.

The devil used to wave that certificate of indebtedness at us, gleefully laughing and rubbing our noses and our faces in all of our faults and parading all of our offenses before God in heaven, jeering at us. Look at them. Look at them, how guilty they are. Why do you favor them? Put them to death. He’s jeering at our ensuing death, our trouble.

It’s a scene portrayed very vividly; you just want to write this down. I’ll read it to you, but it’s Zechariah 3:1-5. It’s such a beautiful picture. “And then he showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the angel of Yahweh, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And Yahweh said to Satan, ‘Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, Yahweh, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is this not a brand delivered from the fire?’

“Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. And he answered and spoke to those who were standing before him, saying, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him.’ And he said to him, ‘See, I’ve made your iniquity pass away from you. I’ll clothe you with festal robes.’ And then I said, ‘Let them put a clean turban on his head.’ So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments while the angel of Yahweh was standing by.”

It’s a good picture of what God has done for us in Christ. It’s a good picture of how he’s silenced the devil in his accusations. It’s a good picture of how God is on our side, and it’s a good picture of what the devil is there to do. “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies,” Romans 8:33-34. “Who’s the one who condemns?” If he justifies, who condemns? How dare you? Shut your mouth.

In forgiving us, God shamed the devil in the process. God “made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him,” and perhaps instead of, through him, it could be translated, through the cross, because the dative there, can refer to Christ as the agent of the triumph, or it could refer to the cross as the means by which Christ triumphed.

Either way, it’s the same point, isn’t it? He triumphed over the devil through the cross or through Christ on the cross. Either way, same thing. The point is this: God utterly embarrassed the rulers and authorities. He completely subverted their intentions in the cross. God mocked the rulers and authorities, and he did so publicly and boldly by brazenly raising Jesus from the dead.

Now human unbelievers didn’t see that. Believers did. They saw his post-resurrection appearances. Human unbelievers didn’t see. The Sadducees and the Pharisees, they didn’t see. Herod and his guard and Pilate and his people, they didn’t see.

You know who saw, clearly, plainly? The devil and his angels. The demons saw him rise from the dead, and they shrieked. They could do nothing to stop it. He raised Jesus from the dead, mocking the rulers and authorities. God shamed them in a public triumph.

The use of that word paints a picture of the Roman custom that honored victorious generals with what was called a triumph, and it was a parade through the streets of Rome after a great victory in battle, after winning a war.

They went back to Rome with some of the prisoners, and usually high-ranking generals and commanders took the field of battle. They took them back to Rome, killed everyone else or enslaved them, sold them into slavery. But they took these generals, these leaders back to Rome, and they went on a big parade in the streets of Rome.

Victorious general riding in the chariot, fanfare, cheering crowds, citizens, slaves, all lining the streets of Rome, cheering and jeering. It was intended to mock and humiliate foreign powers and foreign generals, to allow the citizens to pour forth scorn on these once-dreaded enemy generals and commanders and leaders.

These mighty foreign generals who were once defiant of Rome, they were led through the streets in a parade, and they followed their conqueror, who was in the chariot stationed ahead of them, following him in shame, yanked ahead by the chains secured around their necks, chains attached to the conquering general’s chariot as he rides ahead in victory, as he’s elevated in honor. And that parade only terminates at the death of these prisoners, with the citizens watching, jeering, cheering, wondering what had ever made them afraid.

That’s us, beloved. That’s the Colossian believers. They’re to look at all that would intimidate and all that would entice and say, What? What am I doing? Why would I listen to you for one iota? My, my God has triumphed over you in Christ. You’re nothing. Your end is judgment, to be cast into the lake that burns with fire.

I like F. F. Bruce’s closing summary of this section. I’ll draw this scene to a fitting close. He says, “The very instrument of disgrace and death by which the hostile forces thought they had them in their grasp, and had conquered him forever, was turned by him into the instrument of their defeat and disablement.

“As he was suspended there, bound hand and foot to the wood in apparent weakness, they imagined they had him at their mercy. They flung themselves on him with hostile intent. Far from suffering their attack without resistance, he grappled with them and mastered them, stripping them of their armor in which they trusted, and held them aloft in his outstretched hands, displaying to the universe their helplessness and his own unvanquished strength.

“Such is the picture in these words. Had they but realized the truth, those rulers of this age, as they and as Paul puts in another letter, had they known the hidden wisdom of God which decreed the glory of Christ and his people, ‘they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,’ 1 Corinthians 2:8.

“But now they are dethroned and incapacitated, and the shameful tree has become the victor’s triumphal chariot, before which his captives are driven in humiliating procession, the involuntary and impotent confessors to his superior might.”

Isn’t that good? And so it is that the scene of the cross of Christ is utterly and totally subverted, as the rulers and the authorities are themselves denuded, not Christ, but they are denuded, they are stripped naked, they are laid bare, shamed, completely disarmed.

And now fitting scorn pours forth against them. Unfitting, inappropriate scorn was poured forth on Christ at the cross. Now fitting scorn pours forth against them, as all their intentions as rulers and authorities in the spiritual places comes to nothing, because it’s in Christ and by his death sins are forgiven, the enslaving devil is enslaved, and death dies at his own hand.

So could he ever make us afraid? What? Paul says in verse 16, “Let no one judge you.” In verse 18, “Let no one keep on defrauding you of your prize.” Enjoy it. Enjoy your freedom in Christ. Enjoy your liberty. You have Christ, beloved. In him you have been filled to overflowing, and don’t you ever forget it. Let’s pray.

Our Father, what can we say in response to this but thank you? Oh, and give us a full heart and a faith that believes strongly. Strengthen our faith and build it up so that we never doubt, that our questions never lead to troubling our minds and our hearts and disturbing us, but instead, our questions are just a means and a tool of you enlarging our understanding and deepening our affection for you, to see more fully the cross of Christ and all of its glory, to see Christ in all his majestic triumph, and to see all that opposes and all that tries to intimidate us and entice us and draw us back into slavery.

Let us see it for what it is. Let us never turn back, but let us keep on pressing on ahead with hearts full, assured in the perfect work of Christ. It’s in his name we pray and thank you. Amen.

Hebrews 2:16-18