August 12, 2001

Don't Get Spoiled

Colossians

Once upon a time, there was a farmer who had a mule named Hiney. And he decided that he was going to take Hiney to the market and sell him, so he and his son put a rope on Hiney, and set off walking to town. After a little while, they passed a house, and there were two men setting on the porch. One of the men said to the other one: "Look at that fool out there; walking down the road when there's a perfectly good mule that he could be riding."

Well, the farmer heard that remark, and he didn't like it much, so he climbed up on Hiney and started riding. After a little while, they passed another house and there were two women sitting on the porch, and one of them said to the other one: "Look at that lazy man; riding on that mule and making that poor boy walk."

Well, the farmer heard that remark, and he didn't like it much, so he got down off Hiney and made his son get up and ride. Shortly after that they came around a corner and there was a man sitting under a tree, and he asked where they were going. They said they were going to town to sell the mule. Well this guy was full of the mischief, and he told them: "You're not going to get any money for that mule, because he's getting all dusty and dirty. If you expect to get any money for him, you're going to have to carry him to keep him clean."

Well, when he heard that, the farmer made his son get off the mule, and then he gets under the back end, and his son gets under the front end, and here they go off to town carrying Hiney.

Shortly after, they come to a footbridge across this hollow, and the farmer steps on a loose board and turns his ankle, he loses his balance, and in the confusion, they drop Hiney off the bridge, and the poor mule gets killed.

And the moral to the story is: If you try to please everybody, there's a good chance you'll lose your Hiney.

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to the New Testament book of Colossians, chapter 2, and verse 8.
" Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

When Satan messes with you, typically he will use one of two avenues of attack. One: your own personal inclination to sin and rebellion against God, and two; input from other people, Christian and non Christian, well meaning or mischievous, to mess you around and mess you up. And one of the ways people will do it is by giving you religious rules that aren't from God.

What we are going to do today is take a quick overview of part of the book of Colossians and look at some of the things we need to be aware of that can trip us up, and how we can get the victory over them.
Just before Jesus was crucified, the apostle Philip said to him, "Lord, shew us the Father, and we are content. Jesus answered him; Have I been such a long time with you, and you still don't know me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."

If you have Jesus Christ, you have everything that God can give, there is nothing lacking in the fullness of your salvation, either now or in the eternity to come. It pleases the Father that all fulness of everything dwells in Jesus. And if you have Jesus, you have that too. You have it because God has put away everything that separates us from Himself. Christ has reconciled us to God. What does that mean?
Chapter 1, verse 20: "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Col 1:21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:"
The Greek word that we translate reconcile means to change thoroughly. If you have been truly saved, if you have been truly converted, if you have been truly born again, then it is not some superficial thing.
It is not simply the way you wear your clothes, or what you eat or drink, it is a genuine transformation of your whole person, your whole life gets thoroughly changed into something quite different from what you used to be. If you have ever been reconciled to God through Christ, then you have been thoroughly changed from what you were into something totally different.

In 2nd Corinthians 5 we are told: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation, old things are passed away, all things are become new, and those things are of God, God is the author of what is new, God has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ. He is thoroughly changing us into what He wants us to be.

Verse 21: "And you, that were sometime -at one time- alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:"
Isn't that amazing? We need to stop right here and just be thankful and delighted and overwhelmed at the grace and mercy of God. Right at the place where I am totally inadequate, God is totally sufficient.
Right at the place where I am totally unable to be what God wants me to be, God is able to thoroughly change me and present me to Himself exactly the way He wants me, through the death and reconciliation of Jesus Christ.

If you belong to Jesus Christ by grace through faith, and you feel unholy, unsanctified, unsuccessful in your efforts to draw close to God, don't give up. He has it all planned out exactly how and when and where He will present you totally, thoroughly holy, completely sanctified, and entirely devoted to Himself. He plans to be totally satisfied with you. And what God plans on, He obtains.

Do you feel guilty because you fall short of what you want to be as a Christian? Are you aware that you have every right to be reproached and reproved for all the ways in which you fall short of what you ought to be? I do. And if all I had was a guilt trip to motivate me to try harder, I'd hang it up, because humanly I can never measure up, and neither can you. But praise God, He plans to present you and me to Himself without any blame, any reproof, any reproach at all. He plans to present us to Himself as brothers and sisters of Jesus. Having the nature and character of Jesus Christ Himself thoroughly incorporated into our very personalities and characters.

That's who we are. That's what we have to look forward to. Paul is telling us this, laying the foundation here for where he wants to take us next. He wants us to realize what a full, complete and excellent salvation God has provided for us in Christ. He wants believers to have a good grasp on the nature and extent of all that God has planned for all those that trust in Him. Then he changes gears and kicks things up a notch.

The church has always had the problem of those who would come in and undermine believers by corrupting their faith, trying to make them think that the salvation that they had in Jesus was not good enough, that they needed to add something to it. Go to chapter 2, verse 1: " For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
Col 2:2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;"
Hearts knit together in love. That's a beautiful phrase. This last week Steve called me up late one night just to tell me about something neat he discovered in the Bible, and we talked for awhile about what he had found, and what it meant, and it was such an encouragement to me. It was something I had never thought of, and it blessed my heart, it was good for me. I think that's what Paul is talking about here. We need to be doing more of that among each other. Things that knit our hearts together in love.

Verse 3, speaking of Christ: "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Do you want to be wiser? All wisdom is hidden in Jesus. Do you want to know more, have more knowledge? It's all hidden in Jesus. Seek Jesus; and you will find wisdom and knowledge.
Verse 4: "And this I say, lest any man should beguile you -con you, rip you off- with enticing words." Skip to verse 8: "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."
Spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit. Spoiled by the traditions of men. Spoiled by the rudiments of the world. Up to this point, Paul has been teaching us what we have in Christ, now he proceeds to tell us who and what would try and spoil it for us. He is saying to us; "This is the con. This is the rip-off. Learn how it works."

"Philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men." What in the world is that? And the "rudiments of the world," what does that mean?

Well, philosophy means "a love of wisdom." That sounds good. We have enough people around that love stupidity, it would be nice if we had a few more people around that loved wisdom. "Rudiments of the world" means the basic principles of the world, and how it works. The A B C's of reality. The Old Testament would be rudimentary to the New Testament. The basics. The foundations. The problem comes when people try to arrive at an understanding of life without taking Christ into account. Who He is, and what He's done.

That's why Paul says; "after the tradition of men, and the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ," and verse 9 adds; "For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Col 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:"
If you want to know wisdom, first you have to know Christ. You cannot know wisdom unless you know Christ. Christ is the creator of everything. Christ is the sustainer of everything. If there is any wisdom to be had, it starts with Jesus Christ. When you start from anywhere else, you start in the wrong place, and you end up in the wrong place. If you want to know the meaning of life, if you want to understand morality and ethics, good and evil, you have to start with Christ and His revelation through Scripture, or you will be like the poem of the blind men trying to decide what the elephant is like. And if you've never heard this poem, you're about to:

The Blind Men and the Elephant, by John Godfrey Saxe

It was six men of Hindostan, to learning much inclined,

Who went to see the elephant, (though all of them were blind)

That each by observation might satisfy his mind.

The first approached the elephant and happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side at once began to bawl,

"Bless me, it seems the elephant is very like a wall."

The second, feeling at his tusk, cried, "Ho, what have we here?

So very round and smooth and sharp? To me ``tis mighty clear

This wonder of an elephant is very like a spear."

The third approached the animal and happening to take

The squirming trunk within his hands, then boldly up and spake,

"I see," quoth he, "the elephant is very like a snake."

The fourth stretched out his eager hand and felt about the knee.

"What most this mighty beast is like is mighty plain," quoth he."'

'Tis clear enough the elephant is very like a tree."

The fifth who chanced to touch the ear said, "Even the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most; deny the fact who can,

This marvel of an elephant is very like a fan."

The sixth no sooner had begun about the beast to grope,

Then seizing on the swinging tail that fell within his scope,

"I see," cried he, "the elephant is very like a rope."

And so these men of Hindostan disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right and all were in the wrong.

That is the sort of conclusions that men come to when they try and make sense out of life without starting from the wisdom of Christ. Flawed philosophy, flawed ideas of the basics of life and existence; what about vain deceit, and the traditions of men? All of us are sophisticated enough to realize that there are people around that will try and feed us lies for their own advantage, what the Bible calls vain deceit. And I think we tend to be on our guard fairly well against that sort of thing.

How about the traditions of men? The traditions of our own American culture and society? The traditions of our churches? We take all those things for granted, because they are part of the background that we live in, but are they trustworthy? How should we act toward them?
Verse 10: "Ye are complete in Him -Jesus- who is the head of all principality and power;
Col 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Col 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Col 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;"

This handwriting of ordinances, what is he referring to here? The Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments. Jesus took it to the cross with Him, and He nailed it to His cross, it is taken out of our way, it does not apply to us. The Law is good, but it was contrary to us, and Jesus has met it's requirements and taken it away in it's application to us, or against us.

Verse 15: "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." Jesus put Satan and all his cabinet, all his generals and chief of staff to a public humiliation.
Verse 16: "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Col 2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."
The things of the Old Testament are rudimentary to understanding the New Testament, the things of the Old Testament are shadows of the New Testament, but if you are a part of the body of Christ, those rudimentary things no longer determine what we do or how we live.

In spite of that, there are a lot of people and denominations that mix and confuse those rudiments and traditions with the freedom and liberties that we have in Christ, and they would spoil us in our Christian walk and freedom.
Verse 18: "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
Col 2:19 And not holding the Head, - Jesus Christ- from which all the body -referring to the church- by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God."
Back then, there were people that taught that Jesus was one of a number of heavenly powers, sort of a super-angel, and they taught the doctrine of worshiping angels, of whom Jesus was supposedly the head angel.

Nowadays, we have people who teach praying to Mary, or praying for certain saints to intercede for us, same thing. Paul tell us to focus on Jesus Christ, who is the head of our spiritual body, the church, and don't go off seeking or worshiping something else instead.
Verse 20: "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
Col 2:21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not;
Col 2:22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?
Col 2:23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh."
I doubt that we have any believers in this assembly that are praying to Mary, or praying to the archangel Michael, or to Saint What's-is-name, but sometimes we fall into the trap of making up rules and ordinances for each other, or for ourselves, and eventually all we end up doing is creating stumbling blocks for each other and for the church.

When we covenanted ourselves together as a church, our church covenant was deliberately non-specific in certain areas, we purposely did not set down any hard and fast rules of conduct. The closest thing that we have to rules of conduct is that "we would exercise Christian care and watchfulness over each other, that we would faithfully warn, rebuke and admonish one another as the case shall require, that we would guard the honor of the church, and walk soberly, righteously and Godly in this present world." That's it. Deliberately non-specific.

I suppose everyone in here has heard of a godly man named John Wesley. He started a denomination that God used a couple hundred years ago to convert millions of people to Christ. This book in my hand is a copy of a catechism book for one branch of that denomination, and I would like to read you part of one of it's pages. 250 years ago, this is what was expected of church members, these are the church rules, and they made no bones about it. And I don't want to seem as if I am mocking what those good people taught and believed, but I think this deals exactly with what Paul is teaching here in Colossians:
#1. "First, do no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced: such as-
#2. The taking of the name of God in vain." OK, but I think the Bible already covers that.
#3. "The profaning the day of the Lord, either by doing ordinary work therein, or by buying or selling." Question: where is the chapter and verse for that? Certainly it is healthful and good for all of us to have a day of rest, but to make it a requirement for church membership is unscriptural.
#4. "Drunkenness, or drinking spiritous liquors, unless in cases of necessity." Same as rule #2, I think scripture already covers that.
Let me skip to #6. "Buying or selling goods that have not paid the duty." In other words, if you didn't pay your sales tax, or the import tax, you were not a good church member.
#10. "Doing what is not for the glory of God, such as putting on gold and costly apparel." Shucks, and I always liked my wedding ring, too. Oh, and also; Miriam, Laura; would you get rid of your earrings, and then go tell my wife to get rid of hers? Thankyouverymuch.
#12. "Singing those songs, or reading those books, which do not tend to the knowledge or love of God." OK David, you need to make up some new workout tapes, and I need to cancel my subscription to Kitplanes magazine.

Once again, don't misunderstand me here, I do not want to sound like I am mocking those godly people, or people that have created a godly heritage, but I think this is exactly what Paul was referring to in this chapter. Did Jesus take that handwriting of ordinances that was against us and nail it to His cross so that we could make up our own set of rules? Rules that we think fits our particular social or cultural situation? I don't think so. If Jesus took God's own Ten Commandments out of our way by nailing it to His cross, why should we think we can come up with a better set of rules? That's stupid!

When you start making up church ordinances and rules, human nature will naturally work it's way around to the place that Paul speaks of in verse 23: "these commandments and doctrines of men have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh."

When we were little kids, we all needed rules to keep us out of trouble. Don't play in the street, don't stick the cat's tail in the light socket, don't hit your sister, eat your vegetables or you don't get any dessert. Rudimentary stuff. In the spiritual realm, we needed rules too, and God gave us rules to point us to Christ. Rudimentary stuff. Now that we are in Christ, the number of rules is minimal. Abstain from fornication, stealing, lying, stuff that is easy to remember, in situations that are not complicated. Basically, all we need to remember is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, and love our neighbor as your self, but our habit is that we still tend to think in terms of needing lots of rules.

We tend to think in terms of rules for ourselves, and rules for others. And if God doesn't have any rules that seem to deal with a particular situation, why we'll just make one up! And find a Bible verse to support it.

And then, when we fail to keep the rules that we make up, then we put that failure into the category of sin, and I don't think that's right. I think that when we do that, we become the ones that Paul is warning us against here. - We have met the enemy, and he is us??

I have thought for years in terms of deliberate sins, and sins of ignorance, sins of commission, and sins of omission, and as long as you don't do those, everything else is OK, but I think sometimes when we categorize things that way, we mess up.

Sometimes I think we put certain things in certain categories that God couldn't care less about. Sometimes we call things sin, and they are not. Sometimes I think we forget what we are taught in 1Corinthians 6:12.
"All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any."

Notice the balance and the tension there: freedom to do, freedom not to do.

How about the same thing in 1Corinthians 10:23? "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
1Co 10:24 Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth - or his good.

If something is lawful, can it be sinful at the same time? Not hardly. If something is sinful, then it is not lawful, that's easy. But: if it is lawful, then is it sin? No. it might not be expedient, it might not edify, but that doesn't make it a sin.

Some of us, me especially, want things in terms of black and white, sin or not, but God doesn't make it that simple. He tells us to abstain from a short list of obvious, gross sins, and then leaves a whole lot of other things up to each of us to decide; Is it expedient or not? Is it edifying or not? And He gives us the liberty to do things that are not necessarily edifying or expedient, in fact Paul even tells us that it is lawful for us to do those things. Might not be smart, but that doesn't make it sin.

Let me give you an example of what I mean by this: all of us know Eric, who teaches here during the week. Eric is a diabetic, and he keeps himself in good health by maintaining a very careful diet. What if Eric was to decide: "I'm tired of all this natural, healthy stuff, I'm gonna change to a diet of Twinkies and HoHo's." Would that diet be a sin? Not necessarily. It would be lawful, but not expedient. I think it would be stupid, and if he were to persist in such a thing, it would probably become a sin. Because within six months, Eric would probably find himself surrounded by slow cars and sad music, leaving his wife a widow, and his children fatherless. That would be a sin, but you see my point.

If I came to church dressed in bathing trunks and a Panama hat, would it be lawful? Certainly, God gives me that liberty. Is there any situation under which anybody could persuade me that it was a sin? Probably not. Would it be expedient? No, it would be stupid. I think God gives us the liberty to choose those things which are not expedient, or do not edify others, and then He expects us to live with the consequences of our decisions. And depending on the situation, that may or may not be sin. And part of our Christian maturity is making the right choice for ourselves.

The reason that I have gone to such lengths to bring this out, is that I think the Devil uses guilt and the reproach of our conscience, and the reproach of others, camouflaged as Christian ordinances, rules and regulations, to mess up our heads, and keep us away from God.

I have a young relative who has some problems with authority, and some problems with Christianity, and he joined the Marines. And he started going to church. Recently he got in trouble for underage drinking. One beer. The pastor at his church is super down on alcohol and publicly told him he needed to be put through detox. You can imagine how my young relative feels about going to church now. I would like to kick that pastor right in his legalistic rear end, and I suspect that if the Apostle Paul was here, he would be right beside me waiting for his turn. That is what this passage is all about.

Christianity is not about rules, it is about freedom. John 8:36 tells us: "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Just as God gives us a free will which puts us at risk of not getting saved, he also gives us the freedom to be stupid. He also gives us the instruction of the Holy Spirit to teach us not to be stupid.

Chapter 3, and verse 1: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Col 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Col 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Col 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Col 3:5 Mortify -put to death- therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, -all of these are sexual sins- and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6 For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
Col 3:8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Col 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:"

The antidote for needing rules and regulations, is to set your affections on things above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. Put on that new man, God has provided us a full salvation, walk in it.
Keep your eyes focused on Jesus, fill your mind with His Word, and let yourself be conformed to His image. Don't worry about trying to please everybody, or to live up to everybody else's expectations, because when you do that, sooner or later, you'll slip, and when you do, you'll lose your Hiney.
What we want to do is learn how to love the Lord with all our hearts, and our neighbors, our brothers and sisters in the Lord, as much as we love ourselves. If we could do that, I think a lot of everything else -especially the need for rules- would take care of itself.